A black teenager was kidnapped, tortured and lynched by a group of white men in 1955
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White woman whose accusation against Emmett Till led to murder of black teenager 67 years ago will not be prosecuted Mississippi grand jury ruled kidnapping or manslaughter was determined.
A jury heard more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses before concluding that there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham, now 87.
The Rev. Wheeler Parker, Till's cousin and last living witness to his abduction, , said after "hundreds of years of anti-black systems," the outcome was "unfortunate but predictable." I explained that it is. USA Today said Donham was "unlikely to be prosecuted for her role in the lynching."
What happened to Till?
When a 14-year-old Chicago boy was visiting relatives in Mississippi, he and the other children went to the Money Town store where Carolyn, his Bryant, and his Donham worked. rice field. She claimed Till sexually harassed her. A relative said Till had whistled at a white woman who was 21 at the time, but denied her claims that he had touched her. Bryant's husband Roy and half-brother J.W. Milam armed go to Till's great-uncle's house and kidnap Emmett. They tortured him and threw his battered body into the river.
His "battered and disfigured body" was found in a river several days later, weighted down with heavy metal fans. Al Jazeera said his mother's decision to open the coffin for Till's funeral in Chicago "showed the horror of what happened and ignited the civil rights movement"Al Jazeera.
Bryant and Milam were arrested and tried for murder, but were acquitted by an all-white jury. The suspect later admitted to the killing in a magazine interview because the double-danger statuteprevented him from being tried twice for the same crime, but was retrialed. was never done. both are dead now.
How did the case come to court?
In June, a group searching the basement of the Lefleur County Courthouse discovered that Till's 1955 kidnapping had We have found an unexecuted arrest warrant indicting Bryant Donham and her husband, Milam. But Bryant Donham was never taken into custody.
The warrant was made public at the time, but the sheriff at the time told media that he did not want to "disturb" her mother, who has her two young children, at her home. BBCpointed out.
Till's great-uncle Moses Wright, where the boy was kidnapped from the house, when Bryant Donham testified at trial that he had a "lighter" voice than that of men. , further framed him. I identified the boy in the pickup truck. Also, according to FBI files, Bryant Donham told her husband earlier that night that at least two of her other black men were not Till.
But in an unpublished memoir published last month, Bryant Donham wrote that he didn't know what would become of her until she filed the charges, CNNpointed out.
She also denied that Till was not the boy who allegedly harassed her when two men brought him to her for identification, and in fact
What happens next?
All opportunities for legal action may have been exhausted. says the commentator.
“For more than two decades, prosecutors and legal experts have noted that legal avenues to hold Ms. Donham, or anyone else, criminally responsible for the kidnapping, torture and murder of teenagers have diminished.The New York Times,. As such, the latest developments "are very likely to be one of the last options for prosecution in this case," he added.
But the case remains a strong symbol. In March, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law an anti-lynching bill named after Till. The Voice noted that the bill was successfully passed in his 200th attempt to pass it through Congress and the Senate.
