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Under the best of circumstances, Emmett Till could very well be alive today if not for his chilling beating and murder at the age of 14 in 1955. The Mississippi murder case was a watershed moment in the Civil Rights Movement, and the Justice Department is moving to reopen the investigation.
The Hill reports:
The Justice Department announced in a March report to Congress that it has reopened Till’s 1955 killing after receiving “new information,” The Associated Press reported Thursday.
The case was closed in 2007 after authorities said the suspects had died and the state grand jury didn’t file any charges.
Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, said she was not told the case was reopened until AP contacted her but said it was “wonderful.”
“None of us wants to do anything that jeopardizes any investigation or impedes, but we are also very interested in justice being done,” she told the outlet, declining to discuss specifics.
The Justice Department declined to comment to AP about the investigation.
Last year, author Timothy B. Tyson published the book The Blood of Emmett Till, which suggests that the white woman Carolyn Donham, who was allegedly the target of Till’s cat-calling which prompted the vicious which prompted the vicious attack on his life, lied about what happened.
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