Mississippi AG Will Not Reopen Till Lynching Case Despite Discovered Warrant for Carolyn Donham

Mississippi’s top legal official has no plan to prosecute the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, an aide said Friday following revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and a newly revealed memoir by the woman.

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

Williams also said Fitch’s office has not been in contact with Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, the local prosecutor who would be responsible for pursuing any case against Carolyn Bryant Donham.

The Justice Department previously investigated without filing charges and closed the case, Williams said, referring to the government’s decision in December to end its most recent review of the infamous slaying.

Neither Richardson nor Leflore Sheriff Ricky Banks immediately returned messages seeking comment Friday.

A group searching the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse in June discovered the unserved arrest warrant charging Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant and brother-in-law J.W. Milam in Till’s abduction in 1955. While the men were arrested and acquitted on murder charges in Till’s subsequent slaying, Donham, 21 at the time and 87 now, was never taken into custody.