"We want justice to prevail:" Warrant found in Emmett Till case offers relatives renewed hope for justice
MINNEAPOLIS -- New evidence in the landmark case of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy whose murder in Mississippi ignited the civil rights movement, have his family making renewed calls for justice.
Last week, a team searching a Mississippi courthouse discovered an unserved warrant charging a woman in Till's 1955 kidnapping. Deborah Watts, Till's cousin, and her daughter were there when the document was found.
"After reading it, we just dropped to our knees," said Watts, the head of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. "We prayed and we cried, we were jubilant all at the same time."
The warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham was found by a member of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. As Watts explained, it was in a box that was turned backwards with no identification, unlike others in the courthouse.
In 1955, Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he entered a store where Donham was working. She accused the teen of grabbing her and making a lewd comment.
Two nights later, Donham's then-husband, Roy Bryant and half-brother, J.W. Milam, showed up with guns at the home of Till's relatives. The boy's brutalized body was pulled from a river days later.
Both Bryan and Milam were acquitted of murder but later admitted to the killing.
In March, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to reopen the case without new evidence. Now, Till's family believes they have that, and a chance at justice.
"We want justice to prevail," Watts said. "We think that justice means that the warrant will be served ... for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham."
Till's family want law enforcement and the justice system to do the job they were supposed to do in 1955.
In 2017 book, Donham recanted parts of her accusation against Till.
