Justice Department closes inquiry into murder of Emmett Till, finds no proof accuser lied

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NEW: A federal investigation that reexamined the murder of Emmett Till has concluded after the Justice Dept. failed to find proof a key figure in the case lied, a senior level law enforcement official tells @NBCNews.

Justice Department closes inquiry into murder of Emmett Till, finds no proof accuser lied
A federal investigation that reexamined the murder of Emmett Till concluded on Monday after the Justice Department failed to find proof a key figure in the
nbcnews.com
4:38 PM · Dec 6, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/justice-department-closes-inquiry-murder-emmett-finds-no-proof-accuser-rcna7806?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

A federal investigation that reexamined the murder of Emmett Till concluded on Monday after the Justice Department failed to find proof a key figure in the case lied, a senior level law enforcement official told NBC News.

Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was brutally beaten and shot in the head in 1955 after a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, said the boy whistled at her and touched her in a Mississippi store. He was only 14 at the time of his death.

J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, Donham’s husband at the time, were acquitted of Till’s murder by an all-male, all-white jury in Mississippi who deliberated for just over an hour before returning a not guilty verdict. Both men, who have since died, told a magazine journalist they committed the crime, offering a detailed account of the gruesome slaying.

Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, said in 2017 that investigators were looking into whether Donham admitted to lying about the incident. A previous federal investigation opened in 2004 and subsequent grand jury inquiry went nowhere, as prosecutors noted the statute of limitations for criminal charges had passed.

But Donham reportedly recanted her story to author Timothy B. Tyson, telling him she lied about the incident.

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