Amid a search for evidence on the murder of Black teenager Emmett Till, the search team discovered an unserved warrant last week, charging Carolyn Bryant, the white woman responsible for the kidnapping of Till in 1955. Relatives of the victim are calling for her arrest 70 years later.
The warrant referred to Carolyn Bryant Donham as “Mrs. Roy Bryant” and was found inside a file folder that was placed inside a box. According to Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill, the search team got lucky because there wasn’t anything to indicate where the warrant, dated Aug. 29, 1955, was even after narrowing their search down to the ’50s and ’60s since the files were organized inside boxes by dates.
Members of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and two of Till’s relatives were among the search group. The family members were cousin Deborah Watts, the head of the foundation, and her daughter Teri Watts. The family is hooping this unserved warrant brings justice, especially after the two white men, Donham’s husband, Roy, and his half-brother J.W. Milam were tried and acquitted.
“Serve it and charge her,” Teri said.
Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp who was responsible for the documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till was a part of the search and claimed that they had enough evidence to prosecute Donham, who is now in her 80s and living in North Carolina.
The public knew about the arrest warrant, but officials told reporters that Donham had two children and didn’t want to “bother” her, disregarding that Till also had a mother who wanted her son home.
Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks was seven years old when the murder happened and said he knew nothing about the warrant.
“I will see if I can get a copy of the warrant and get with the DA and get their opinion on it,” Banks said. If the warrant can still be used, Banks said he would talk with law enforcement in North Carolina.
According to Ronald J. Rychlak, a law professor at the University of Mississippi, old arrest warrants may not have much of an effect, especially one from 1955, since a lot of time has passed and circumstances may have changed. The family would have a chance at justice if they combined the old arrest warrant with new evidence.
Donham was 21 at the time of the incident and said that Till, who was visiting family in Mississippi from Chicago, flirted with her, grabbed her and made obscene comments. The U.S. Justice Department did open an investigation into the lynching of Till but then closed it after Donham denied an author’s claim that she recanted her testimony.
