What happened to Emmett Till was horrific, but unfortunately there is no crime for which she could be prosecuted. While I of course learned of this case as a teen, and knew the white men were acquitted, I investigated it further after reading OP’s post to learn why the Grand Jury did not indict the woman whose false account led to the murder.
The federal government found that they did not have sufficient evidence that her lie instigated the murder, as she denied recanting the original story. As far as prosecuting her for perjury, rather than for instigating a murder, that would have been in state court, and the state limitation would have run out.
The fact that the all-white jury acquitted the murderers does show, tragically, how racist it was in the South back then. Compare that to the recent case where the father-and-son killed the black man running down the street, and a third man who was filming it was ALSO sentenced to life in prison.
So while we recognize how unjust the system was in 1950s Mississippi when a white killed a black - which everyone knows - I think it is important to recognize how much progress made in the generations since then. In fact, in some cases, it has swung to the opposite extreme, most famously with OJ Simpson. By and large, the lopsided treatment of white murderers of black victims has died with the Old South.
May Emmett Till RIP.
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi announced today that it has closed its investigation into a witness’s alleged recantation of her account of the events leading up to the murder of Emmett Till. The...
www.justice.gov