With a 70-Year-Old Warrant in Hand, Emmet Till’s Family Calls for Justice

The family of Emmett Till is calling for the woman linked to the Black teen’s kidnapping in 1955 to be arrested after a team searching for new evidence into the infamous lynching found an unserved warrant for her that was never executed.

With a 70-Year-Old Warrant in Hand, Emmet Till’s Family Calls for Justice

The family of Emmett Till is calling for the woman linked to the Black teen’s kidnapping in 1955 to be arrested after a team searching for new evidence into the infamous lynching found an unserved warrant for her that was never executed almost 70 years ago, reports the Washington Post. Carolyn Bryant Donham, who is white, had accused the 14-year-old Till of making improper advances at a family store in Money, Miss., in August 1955 — an accusation that started the chain of events that led to Till’s lynching.

Since police never served the warrant, it is possible for law enforcement to still seek her arrest. Nearly 60 years after the lynching, Donham, who was married to Roy Bryant, one of the two white men who killed Till, revealed that she lied about her interaction with Till when she told a jury that he had grabbed her waist and said crude things to her. While a 1955 warrant would probably not hold up if a sheriff were to serve it, any new evidence could provide a stronger argument for the discovery of the warrant to bring about a new probe.