The white woman who accused black teenager Emmett Till of whistling at her and touching her in a store in Mississippi in 1955 has died.
Carolyn Bryant Donham died Tuesday while receiving hospice care in Westlake, Louisiana, The New York Times reported. She was 88 and battling cancer, according to Mississippi Today.
Donham was 21 when she accused 14-year-old Till of making sexual advances toward her while she worked at a grocery store.
Till was brutally beaten and shot in the head by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, Donham’s then-husband, after she made the allegations against him. They were arrested but acquitted by an all-white male jury in Mississippi in an era before the Civil Rights movement, so no one has been held accountable.
In 2017, federal investigators began looking into whether Till’s accuser admitted to lying about what, if anything, actually happened between her and Till. That investigation ended in December 2021, NBC News reported, with the U.S. Department of Justice apparently failing to find evidence that Donham had lied.
The investigation arose from reporting by author Timothy B. Tyson, who said Donham recanted her story and said she lied about the incident. But Donham denied lying when she spoke to federal investigators.
Tyson stood by his reporting, telling NBC that Donham was not a reliable witness.
“Carolyn Bryant denies it and avoids talking about it like it was the plague,” Tyson said. “I am standing in the public square telling the truth as I see it based on solid evidence.”
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The DOJ said it found no evidence Donham had ever lied, closing the case without any arrests. In its case document, the DOJ said it could not prosecute Donham or anyone else because it had “not uncovered any new evidence that would change its conclusion from its 2004 investigation that it was not able to bring federal charges against [Donham] in connection with Till’s abduction and murder.”
Another issue the DOJ faced was that the statute of limitations has run out for all “potential federal crimes that could apply to Till’s abduction and murder, and there is no other potential basis for federal jurisdiction,” the Department said. This includes prosecuting Donham for allegedly lying on the stand or making false allegations against Till.
Till’s relatives continued to insist Donham be prosecuted for her role in his lynching, and an attorney for the family told the Associated Press in April 2022 that since a 1955 kidnapping warrant for Donham’s arrest apparently was never dismissed, it could still be used to arrest Donham.
“This warrant is a stepping stone toward that,” said Jaribu Hill, the attorney representing Till’s relatives. “Because warrants do not expire, we want to see that warrant served on her.”
A grand jury, however, declined to indict Donham in August 2022, CNN reported. District Attorney Dewayne Richardson released a statement announcing the decision.
“After hearing every aspect of the investigation and evidence collected regarding Donham’s involvement, the Grand Jury returned a ‘No Bill’ to the charges of both Kidnapping and Manslaughter,” Richardson said in the statement. “The murder of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this nation continue to be with the family of Emmett Till.”
