KSDK:
A grand jury declined to issue an indictment in the 1955 slaying of black Chicago teenager Emmett Till, who was kidnapped from his uncle’s home in the Mississippi Delta and shot to death after whistling at a white woman.
The grand jury in Leflore County wrapped up its work this past week and issued a “no bill” against Carolyn Bryant, the widow of one of two white men originally acquitted of Till’s death. A “no bill” means the grand jury found insufficient evidence existed for an indictment on a criminal charge.
Documents made public Tuesday show prosecutors sought a manslaughter charge.
The only way Carolyn Bryant could have faced any charges if there was any hint that there was concrete evidence that she instructed or prodded her husband and J.W. Milam into murdering Emmett Till. Leflore County being virtually all black, and therefore the county’s justice system being so, I take the (black) grand jury’s refusal to do so as evidence that there’s not even as much as a hint of this.
The only other possibility to get charges against Mrs. Bryant was that the prosecutors could show that, based on the history of race relations and the sensitivity that Mississippi whites had toward black men making passes at white women, and the consequences for black men that did so, that her telling her husband that Emmett Till wolf-whisted at her was tantamount to her condemning him to death, and that she knew full well what would happen to Till if she told her husband about the incident. Similarly, an Illinois jury convicted former World Church of the Creator leader Matt Hale of murder conspiracy charges several years ago — while Hale never came out and ordered or suggested that the late Federal district judge Joan Lefkow should be assassinated, (and her eventual death by murder had nothing to do with Hale or the WCOTC, it stemmed from a disgruntled party in a divorce case from Wisconsin, a case that she handled and resolved in a manner none to the liking of this person), prosecutors were able to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that what Hale did say to his cohorts was the functional equivalent of issuing an assassination order against her, considering the concrete history of extreme right-wing individuals and personalities and their violence against magistrates. I bet the Leflore County prosecutors made this sort of case, but the black grand jury didn’t buy it.
The FBI reopened the case in 2004 but decided in 2006 not to press charges.
Because of ex post facto, there was no Federal law that existed in 1955 that they could have used to press any charges against anyone. This FBI “investigation,” therefore, was a foregone conclusion from the start, and everyone knew it. The only reason it went forward was to pander to black politicians.
Simeon Wright, 64, who was in the store that day with Emmett and heard the infamous wolf-whistle, got the news from the FBI shortly before heading to the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ near Chicago for his regular Tuesday morning prayers.
What was the FBI’s formal involvement in a Leflore County, Miss. grand jury deliberation? It should be zero, but because of the racial nature of this case, they’ll be out there to show off.
He said the grand jury’s failure to return an indictment did not surprise him.
“You’re looking at Mississippi,” he told The Associated Press. “I guess it’s about the same way it was 50 years ago. We had overwhelming evidence, and they came back with the same decision. Some of the people haven’t changed from 50 years ago. Same attitude. The evidence speaks for itself.”
Except that this was black Leflore County, meaning a black grand jury.
Previous coverage of the Emmett Till reinvestigation on this blog may be found here and here
