A vital item in the Emmett Till case has officially been uncovered. During a search for evidence surrounding the 1955 lynching, a team found the unserved arrest warrant that charged a white woman for his kidnapping.
As previously reported by REVOLT, Till’s family has refused to give up in the nearly 70-year quest for justice after his mangled body was found in a Mississippi river following a white woman’s claim that he whistled at her. He was only 14 years old at the time.
Now, a warrant that called for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham has been discovered inside of a file folder located inside of a box in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse. With documents filed according to their decades, Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill says that the group “got lucky.”
“They narrowed it down between the ’50s and ’60s and got lucky,” Stockstill explained. He also confirmed that the document, dated Aug. 29, 1955, is legitimate.
The search party included dedicated family members of Till who have refused to let up in the fight for justice for their loved one. His distant cousin Deborah Watts, who leads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, as well as her daughter Teri Watts, were apart of the group. Other members of the organization helped to look for the key document.
Donham, who is rumored to be living somewhere in Raleigh, North Carolina, was originally named as an abductor in Till’s case. However, she was never arrested nor brought to trial for the horrendous crime. At the time, officials said they “did not want to bother her.”
Last year, the Justice Department closed the investigation after not being able to prove that witnesses lied. An attorney working closely with the Till family previously said that the warrant would be a “stepping stone” toward justice. Attorney Jaribu Hill also said that “because warrants do not expire” they “want to see that warrant served on her.”