Mississippi Prosecutors Have No Plans To Go After Woman Involved in Emmett Till Lynching Following Discovery Of Decades-Long Arrest Warrant For Her

Many of us have been wondering what would come after a decades-long arrest warrant was found for the woman involved in the Emmett Till lynching.

Sadly, Mississippi’s Attorney General has announced that there is no plan to prosecute Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman accused of setting off the lynching of Till nearly 70 years ago.

Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Attorney General Lynn Fitch, said Friday, “There’s no new evidence to open the case back up.”

Williams also said Finch’s office had not contacted Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, who is the local prosecutor and the one who would be responsible for pursuing any case against Carolyn Bryant Donham, Complex reported.

Williams also noted that the Justice Department had previously investigated the matter without filing charges and then closed the case in December.

Recently, a group searched the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse and came across the unserved arrest warrant that charged Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant, and brother-in-law J.W. Milam in Till’s 1955 abduction.

The men were arrested but later acquitted on murder charges in Till’s slaying, Donham, who is now 87, was never arrested.

In an unpublished memoir, Donham claims she was unaware of what would happen to Till, who was a teenager at the time and killed before he was tossed in a river. She accused him of making lewd comments and grabbing her while she worked alone at a family story in Money, Mississippi.