U.S. Justice Department ends Emmett Till murder investigation without charges

Edited by Ed Newman
2021-12-08 08:23:51

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The U.S. Department of Justice has ended its latest investigation into the murder of Emmett Till without filing any charges. 

Washington, December 8 (RHC)-- The U.S. Department of Justice has ended its latest investigation into the murder of Emmett Till without filing any charges.  Till was the 14-year-old Black teenager who was brutally abducted, tortured and killed in Mississippi in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white woman and store clerk. 

Federal prosecutors opened their latest probe after a 2017 book quoted Donham as saying she lied when she said Till made sexual advances toward her.  But the Justice Department ruled it had “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Donham lied to the FBI.  

Till’s family said they were deeply disappointed by the decision to drop the case.  Donham’s husband and his half-brother were tried for Till’s murder and acquitted by an all-white jury.  The two later confessed to beating and shooting Till in a magazine article. 

Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, described her decision to have an open casket and show her son’s mutilated body at his funeral.  She said that the funeral director asked if she wanted him to do something to fix her son's face.  She replied: "No.  Let the people see what I have seen."

If he had lived, Emmett Till would have celebrated his 80th birthday in July.



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