Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office has no official plans to prosecute Carolyn Bryant Donham after an unserved arrest warrant, as well as her personal memoir, were recently discovered.
In Donham’s unpublished memoir, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Donham said she was unaware of what would happen to Emmett Till before he was abducted, killed, and tossed into a river.
Donham claimed that a group of men brought Till to her in the middle of the night for identification, but she attempted to help the 14-year-old by denying it was him. She says that Till identified himself to the men.
Days later, Till’s body was found in a river where it was weighted down with a heavy metal fan. Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, decided to hold an open casket at Till’s funeral in Chicago to highlight the brutality of what was done to her son.
Further, Deborah Watts, Till’s cousin who leads the Emmett Till Legacy foundation, believes that the unserved warrant and memoir should not be ignored by authorities in Mississippi.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi AG’s office doesn’t believe that there is sufficient evidence to reopen the case. In addition, nobody from Fitch’s office has been in contact with Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, who would be responsible for pursuing any case against Donham.
The AG’s office also noted that the Justice Department had already closed its most recent investigation of Till’s case.
Emmett Till’s family calls for action after discovery of unserved warrant
