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In a recent development in the Emmett Till case from 1955, a Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict 87-year-old Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman whose false accusation led to the lynching of 14-year old African-American teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago.
The decision came despite revelations about an outstanding arrest warrant and an unpublished memoir by Bryant in which she accepted her role as the one who identified him.
As per a press release by the local district attorney, Dewayne Richardson, a grand jury in Leflore county in the state's northwestern corner, considered evidence and testimony regarding the lynching case from 1955.
According to Richardson, the grand jury determined that the evidence presented was not sufficient enough to warrant an arrest order against her or to indict her.
The hearing included more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses. The panel also considered kidnapping and manslaughter charges.
With the grand jury's decision not to charge Donham and considering her current age, it becomes seemingly impossible that she will ever face charges for her role in the events that led to Till's death.
What happened to Emmett Till? Family still seeking justice for his brutal killing
Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., Emmett's cousin and the last living witness to his kidnapping in 1955, spoke to the media and declared the verdict unfortunate.
He said in a statement:
“The prosecutor tried his best, and we appreciate his efforts, but he alone cannot undo hundreds of years of anti-Black systems that guaranteed those who killed Emmett Till would go unpunished, to this day."
He further said:
“The fact remains that the people who abducted, tortured, and murdered Emmett did so in plain sight, and our American justice system was and continues to be set up in such a way that they could not be brought to justice for their heinous crimes.”
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old teenager from Chicago. He was visiting his relatives in Mississippi when he was lynched by Rob Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam following a fake accusation by Bryant's wife Carolyn Donham, who said that Till had cat called her and grabbed her waist.
Till had an open casket at his funeral as his mother Mamie Till Mobley wanted everyone to see what had been done to him. Photos of his brutalized dead body shocked the entire nation.
Till's death sparked major protests throughout the United States and was an important precursor to the Civil Rights Movement in the country.
Roy Bryant and JW Milam were arrested but were later quickly acquitted by an all-white jury.
In an unpublished memoir by Donham that was recently procured, she claimed herself to be a victim of the tragedy, thereby sparking debates surrounding Till's death and people clamouring for Donham's arrest.
