Emmett Till: family seeks arrest after discovery of unserved 1955 warrant

[Jilly_in_VA]

A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim who initiated the hunt want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later.

A warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham – identified as “Mrs Roy Bryant” on the document – was discovered last week inside a file folder that had been placed in a box, the Leflore county circuit clerk, Elmus Stockstill, told the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday.

Documents are kept inside boxes by decade, he said, but there was nothing else to indicate where the warrant, dated 29 August 1955, might have been.

“They narrowed it down between the 50s and 60s and got lucky,” said Stockstill, who certified the warrant as genuine.

The search was started by the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and included two members of Till’s family: cousin Deborah Watts, head of the Foundation, and her daughter, Teri Watts. They want authorities to use the warrant to arrest Donham, who at the time of the slaying was married to one of two white men tried and acquitted just weeks after Till was abducted from a relative’s home, killed and dumped into a river.

“Serve it and charge her,” Teri Watts told the AP in an interview.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/29/emmett-till-warrant-carolyn-bryant-donham-family-arrest

She lied and Emmett Till died.

[modrepub]

1. For Some

I guess if you want justice you have to do it yourself.

I don't expect much of an effort on this. After all, it's been packed away for decades. Guess they never expected anyone (from the outside) to look for it.

[Thtwudbeme]

4. Disagree

Germans know what it means to look up WWII criminals.

[modrepub]

7. Disagree

Most of Nazi's were never prosecuted (in Germany). Israel tracked down some of the most notorious ones. In the decades after WWII, lesser Nazi Party members went back to their old jobs. What you're seeing happening now is that some are being tracked down but this is a long time coming (and reflects a change in generations and thinking).

As an example, the policemen who arrested Anne Frank's family were never prosecuted to my knowledge. One of the arresting officers commented something to the effect that if he had burned all the papers strewn around the Frank apartment that day the world would have never known she existed.

[gratuitous]

8. The authorities finally tried Byron De La Beckwith

It similarly took decades and a sea change in the politics of the area, but he was convicted of the murder of Medgar Evers in 1994.

[Greybnk48]

2. Serve it and charge her! Agree 100% n/t

[robertpaulsen]

3. If they can convict a 101 year old Nazi in Germany

Then we can serve and lock up an 80+ year old racist in the USA.

[Skittles]

5. that is exactly what I was thinking

never, never let justice be denied

get her

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. Abso-fuckin-lutely!!

[spanone]

9. ...K&R...

[Thomas Hurt]

10. She very old of course, doesn't mean she shouldn't be brought to trial and have her due process...

Doesn't mean she has to go to prison, just means that she and present day christofascists need to know they aren't safe even after a cover up (intentional or not).

[groundloop]

11. For me the best case scenario would be if she renounces racism and sincerely apologizes.....

Yes, I think she should be charged. I'm neutral as to whether or not an 80+ year old woman should go to prison over something that happened so long ago.

I'd hope that if nothing else she'd make a strong statement that she's sorry for what she did so many years ago, that she recognizes how much harm racism has done to our society, and that she renounces all forms of racism.

[soldierant]

16. While I understand your feelings,

time is really just a construct. Sttites of limitations are for the convenience of the courts, not an effort to administer real justice. If she is truly not the same person now that she was then, she should be able to demonstrate that, Restorative justice means restoring something to the victims, and in this case, closure is the best they are going to get.

[AllTooEasy]

18. Put that racist murdering piece of crap on death row!

I can't believe the level of empathy for a racist murderer and apathy for the victims (Emmett and Family) from fellow DUers! "Something that happened"?! They tortured and killed a black child! I'm Black. It means more than "something" to me.

Emmett Till was denied a long life ahead of him. She enjoyed hers, and now it's past time for that life to end via one of Mississippi's sanctioned methods. One of which is the electric chair, and my preferred method for this hate criminal. I'm generally against the death penalty, but she's had it coming. If the state can't convict her of a capital crime, she should still get the 25-life that she was due 70 years ago. She had decades to confess, to apologize, and make atonement. She refused, and yall want her to just "renounce racism"?! Google the pic of Emmett's open casket. Put yourself behind the eyes of Emmett's mother when she first saw her baby's face at the morgue. Imagine it in color, 3D, high-def. The smell, after being pulled out the river. That's your child. You endured 9 months of pregnancy, sacrificed countless hours to raise him, and that visual is what remains. "Sincerely Apologize"?! After a life of purposefully avoiding the ramifications for her actions?

I don't give a damn if she is on her deathbed, that comfortable bed should be switched to a thin cot in a 6x8 cell on death row!

And for the "what purpose would be served?" crowd: Deterrence to potential criminals and the assurance of justice to the victims of caught criminals. It would teach everyone that you can't just escape the law until you're old and expect to not get the same punishment as when you committed the crime. You will always be accountable, and get what you deserved when the law catches up with ya!

[BigDemVoter]

14. For me, what would be important would be for that old fascist to have to have her day in court and

face her accusers. I don't think she has ever had to do that before.

What a sickening piece of shit.

[soldierant]

17. Yes.

[AllTooEasy]

19. She should face her accusers and victims from Mississippi's electric chair

How is "facing accusers" punishment to a bigoted, murding, unapologetic psychopath? She had decades to come forward. She purposely refused. She would have helped previously if she had a conscious.

[soldierant]

20. Suurvivors of victims often do get invited to executions - in those states which still

have executions.

But she is entitled to due process first. And facing her accusers should be part of that.

[Joinfortmill]

12. 👍

[Lunabell]

13. Amen!

I don't care how old she is. She murdered that young man!!

[rogue emissary]

15. She's still alive and "Lock her up!"

Last edited Wed Jun 29, 2022, 08:37 PM - Edit history (1)