A Mississippi grand jury will not indict the white woman whose accusations led to the lynching of Emmett Till, a black teenager, in the 1950s, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
The jury considered charges of kidnapping and manslaughter for Carolyn Donham, the woman who accused Till of making unwelcome advances in a grocery store in 1955, but returned a “no bill” indicating they would not indict Donham, said District Attorney Dewayne Richardson. Donham, who is in her late 80s with a last-known address in North Carolina, is unlikely ever to be prosecuted for her role in the events that led to Till’s lynching, according to Mississippi Today.
“The murder of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this nation continue to be with the family of Emmett Till,” Richardson said in a statement.
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Till was accused of grabbing Donham’s waist and making inappropriate comments, according to testimony from Donham decades ago — an account she later said was false in an interview for the 2017 book The Blood of Emmett Till.
The teenage boy was visiting the town when he and his cousins went to the store to buy some candy, and Till allegedly made advances at Donham, who was working behind the counter, according to reports. Later that night, Donham’s husband at the time and his half brother went to the home where Till was staying and demanded he come outside.
After unsuccessful attempts to send the men away, Till’s great uncle led the two men through his home to where the teenager was sleeping. They woke him up and told him to get dressed and come with them, according to the Associated Press. His body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River with a large cotton gin fan tied around his neck.
The two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were later charged with murder and went to trial in September 1955, when they were acquitted after an hour of deliberation by an all-white, all-male jury.
Donham wrote in a leaked memoir from July that she never wanted Till killed and sought to help him by refusing to identify him. Her memoir also rebutted claims by a professor that Donham told him she made up her accusations of Till’s advances.
A search group with the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation found an unserved warrant in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse and certified it as real on June 21. The discovery of the warrant led to renewed calls for Donham’s arrest. Bryant and Milam, who have since died, were both listed on the warrant alongside Donham.
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The Washington Examiner has contacted Richardson’s office for comment.
Cami Mondeaux contributed to this report.
