The Department of Justice has reportedly concluded its investigation into the 1955 killing of teenager Emmett Till, who was accused by a white Mississippi shop owner of making advances on her.
Professor Timothy Tyson claimed in 2017 that Carolyn Bryant Donham, 87, confided to him that that when she told federal agents the 14-year-old took her hand while visiting the market she operated with her husband, and said he’d been with “white women before,” her testimony wasn’t accurate.
“That part’s not true,” Donham allegedly told Tyson.
But according to CNN, Donham told investigators she never recanted her testimony and authorities could not prove otherwise. No recording of Donham’s alleged confession to Tyson was made.
Till, who was from Chicago, was tortured and killed more than 65 years ago after the then 20-year-old shopkeeper told her husband she’d been whistled at and harassed by the boy. Witness accounts of the incident varied.
An all-white jury acquitted Donham’s husband and another white man who’d been charged with killing Till. Those men, who have since died, told a magazine writer that they’d murdered the child.
Another investigation into Till’s case was closed in 2007. Tyson’s claims prompted it to be reopened in 2017. CNN reports that Justice Department officials told Till’s family in Chicago on Monday that they were ending their current examination.
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