Justice Dept. Reopens Emmett Till Murder Case

 

The federal government has reopened the murder case of Emmett Till, a black teen killed in Mississippi after he was accused of grabbing a white woman. 

The 1955 lynching of the 14-year-old spurred the U.S. civil rights movement and remains one of the most brutal examples of racial violence in the South.

The Justice Department declined to comment to UPI on Thursday but sent court documents about the case, which was dated March 26.

The report said the case was reopened "based upon the discovery of new information," but did not give other details.

Till was found nude in a river, shot in the head and weighted down with 125 pounds of metal. He was lynched by white vigilantes, one of whom accused Till of wolf-whistling at his wife in a local grocery store.

Two men accused in the killing were acquitted of murder, and later admitted to a magazine reporter they indeed killed Till. In a book published about the incident, the wife, Carolyn Donham, admitted she lied about Till's alleged advances to the FBI and to other law enforcement officers.

Till's mother, Mamie Mobley Till, a civil rights leader and educator, allowed her son's savagely beaten body to be viewed by thousands of mourners. She died in 2003.