A Lefleur County grand jury heard seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses last week, and there was insufficient evidence to charge Carolyn Bryant Donham with kidnapping and manslaughter, according to a statement from District Attorney Dwayne Richardson. said to be insufficient.
The grand jury heard testimony from eyewitnesses detailing investigations into the case from 2004 to the present and considered both charges, according to a statement.
“After hearing all aspects of the investigation and the evidence gathered regarding Donham’s involvement, the grand jury returned ‘No Bill’ to both the kidnapping and manslaughter charges,” the statement said. Till’s murder is a tragedy that our country will never forget, and our nation’s thoughts and prayers remain with Emmett Till’s family.”
The warrant is dated August 29, 1955 and is signed by the Lefleur County Clerk. An image of the warrant shows that the current clerk authenticated the document on June 21.
Emmett’s family hoped the warrant would lead to prosecution and ultimately justice.
“Justice must be served,” Emmett’s cousin Deborah Watts told CNN in late June.
CNN reached out to Emmett’s family for comment on Tuesday but did not hear back.
Emmett’s murder remains a touchstone moment in America’s long struggle against racial injustice and inequality, but to this day no one has been held criminally responsible.
Emmett, who lived in Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi in the summer of 1955 when he had a fateful encounter with then-20-year-old Carolyn Bryant. A market she owned with her husband in the town of Money.
However, they were both acquitted by a white jury after a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett had grabbed her and verbally threatened her.
The man later admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine.
Emmett’s death received attention far beyond the state of Mississippi. A photo of his mutilated body was later published in Jet magazine and spread around the world. His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, demanded he hold a public coffin funeral so the whole world could see her son’s injuries and the consequences of racial terrorism – Civil Rights Movement helped to promote
Milam died in 1980 and Bryant in 1994. Bryant Donham is in his late 80’s.
Bryant Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her by the hands and waist and proposed to her, saying he had been with “white women before”. When the professor presented that trial testimony in a 2008 interview with Bryant Donham, he claimed she told him, “That part isn’t true.”
CNN’s Amy Simonson, Sara Sidner, Tina Burnside, Dakin Andone, Devon Sayers, Elizabeth Joseph, and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnn.com
