Why US Department of Justice officially closed an investigation into Emmett Till?

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The latest investigation into the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, has been officially closed by the DOJ (US Department of Justice). Emmett Till was a Black teenager from Chicago and an eyewitness said he was kidnapped, tortured, killed after he whistled at a White woman in Mississippi. On Monday, DOJ announced after meeting with the family members of Till in Illinois. The Justice Department issued a statement and said, “One of the family members in attendance at the meeting had been a witness to the events preceding abduction and murder of Till. The purpose of the meeting was to explain the reasons for closing the investigation and to allow the family to ask questions about the department’s investigation and conclusions”. The Department of Justice reopened the investigation after a 2017 book quoted a key figure, Carolyn Bryant Donham.

Bryant Donham said she lied when she claimed that 14-year-old Till, grabbed her, whistled, and made sexual advances while she was working in a store in the small community of Money. Relatives have publicly rejected the claim that Donham renounced her allegations about Till, while she is in her 80s. The killing provoked the civil rights movement after the mother of Till, insisted on an open casket, and Jet magazine published photos of his brutalized body. Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, days after he was killed. He was tossed after being weighted down with a cotton gin fan. Two White men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were arrested on murder charges about a month after the killing of Till, but an all-White Mississippi jury acquitted them.

It is noteworthy that both White men confessed months later in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955. The Department of Justice opened an investigation of Till’s killing in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living. DOJ said the statute of limitations had run out on any potential federal crime. The FBI worked with state investigators to determine if state charges could be brought. But a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone in February 2007 and the Department of Justice announced it was closing the case. On Monday, the Department pointed out that there was no federal hate crime law on the books in 1955. The FBI investigation has included a talk with Till’s cousin Reverend Wheeler Parker.