Emmett Till: family seeks arrest after discovery of unserved 1955 warrant

A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim who initiated the hunt want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later.

Documents are kept inside boxes by decade, he said, but there was nothing else to indicate where the warrant, dated 29 August 1955, might have been.

Now in her 80s and most recently living in North Carolina, Donham has not commented publicly on calls for her prosecution. But Teri Watts said the Till family believes the warrant accusing Donham of kidnapping amounts to new evidence.

The district attorney, Dewayne Richardson, whose office would prosecute a case, declined comment on the warrant but cited a December report about the Till case from the justice department, which said no prosecution was possible.

Till, who was from Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he entered the store where Donham, then 21, was working on 24 August 1955. A Till relative who was there at the time, Wheeler Parker, told AP that Till whistled at the woman. Donham testified in court that Till also grabbed her and made a lewd comment.

Bryant and Milam were acquitted of murder but later admitted the killing in a magazine interview. While both men were named in the same warrant that accused Donham of kidnapping, authorities did not pursue the case following their acquittal.