The Justice Department announced this week that it is closing its investigation into the death of 14-year-old Emmett Till with no charges being brought forward after it could not prove that a witness lied about the events leading up to the Black teenager's death.
The Justice Department explained that "In closing this matter without prosecution, the government does not take the position that the state court testimony the woman gave in 1955 was truthful or accurate." The DOJ adds, "There remains considerable doubt as to the credibility of her version of events, which is contradicted by others who were with Till at the time, including the account of a living witness."
The 1955 murder of Emmett Till helped spark the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Till was lynched in Money, Mississippi after a white woman, then 20-year-old Carolyn Bryant, accused Till of whistling at her in her family-owned grocery store. During the trial, Bryant also accused Till of having grabbed her waist and making sexual advances toward her.
When Bryant told her husband, Roy Bryant, about the incident, Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam went on a hunt for the teen and abducted him. They beat him up, gouged out one of his eyes, and shot him in the head. They then used barbed wire to tie his body to a 75-pound cotton gin fan and threw him into the Tallahatchie River.
Roy Bryant and Milam later confessed to the abduction and killing in a paid magazine interview. Following their confession, they were tried for the murder of Emmett Till but were acquitted by an all-white jury.
The 2018 investigation into Till’s death was launched after Duke University Professor Timothy Tyson wrote a 2017 account of the murder and trial titled "The Blood of Emmett Till.” In his book, Tyson details that Bryant, now Carolyn Bryant Donham, had recanted her allegations to him during a 2008 interview. Tyson also detailed that Bryant Donham also made up parts of her testimony. However, Tyson did not record the interview in which she recanted the confession but instead explained that he took detailed notes of the interview. The FBI detailed that one recording Tyson provided of his interview with Bryant Donham did not contain evidence that she recanted her allegations. The DOJ also adds that Tyson “provided inconsistent explanations about whether the missing recording included the alleged recantation or whether, instead, the woman made the key admission before he began recording the interview.”
Bryant Donham told FBI officials that she never recanted her testimony to Tyson. The DOJ details, “when [Bryant Donham] asked about the alleged recantation, denied to the FBI that she ever recanted her testimony and provided no information beyond what was uncovered during the previous federal investigation.”
Till's living relatives shared their sadness over the DOJ’s news about the investigation during a conference in Chicago. "Even though we do not feel we got justice, we must move forward," shared Till’s cousin, Ollie Gordon. "Let's figure out how we can continue to make a change."
Thelma Wright Edwards, another one of Till’s cousins, shared, “I have no hate in my heart, but I had hoped that we could get an apology, but that didn’t happen. Nothing was settled. The case is closed, and we have to go on from here.”
Till’s brutal death helped advance the civil rights movement after Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, held an open-casket funeral for her son. Mobley wanted the world to see the distorted face of her son in an effort to give recognition to the injustice African Americans suffered at the time.
In their press release, the DOJ detailed that “The government’s re-investigation found no new evidence suggesting that either the woman or any other living person was involved in Till’s abduction and murder.” Roy Bryant and Milam have since died and Bryant Dohman was last known to be living in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The DOJ adds that “Even if such evidence could be developed, no federal hate crime laws existed in 1955, and the statute of limitations has run on the only civil rights statutes that were in effect at that time. As such, even if a living suspect could now be identified, a federal prosecution for Till’s abduction and murder would not be possible.”
