Bro. Askia
New Member
NAACP calls for probe of Emmett Till slaying
2003/02/02 09:02 PM EDT
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/0103/05till.html
By Ron Harrist
Associated Press
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/index.cfm?ARTICLEID=80262&CATID=4
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The NAACP is calling for prosecutors to reopen the Emmett Till murder case, a possibility the Mississippi attorney general says is remote because the years have wiped away the evidence in the black teenager's 1955 slaying.
The call for a renewed investigation follows a PBS documentary last month about the killing, which became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. The film included the recollections of Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who died last month at age 81 in Chicago.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Friday that its president, Kweisi Mfume, wrote a letter to Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore urging action.
``With the recent passing of Mamie Till Mobley, who fought tirelessly to see justice done in the killing of her son, it is now time to address what remains an ugly mark on the history of Mississippi and the United States,'' the NAACP leader wrote. ``Her extraordinary acts of courage must not be in vain.''
But Moore said reopening the case is unlikely because both suspects have died.
``I am always interested in prosecuting cases where someone has been murdered and the murderer has gotten away,'' he said. ``But you have to have evidence and you have to have a live defendant.''
Moore spoke to The Associated Press before he became aware of the NAACP's statement. Later in the day, his office said he hadn't yet received the letter and couldn't comment on it.
Till was kidnapped from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. The 14-year-old was visiting from Chicago.
Three days later, Till's mutilated body _ unrecognizable except for a ring on his hand _ was found by a fisherman in the Tallahatchie River. Pictures of the body shocked the world.
Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam, were arrested and charged with the murder but were later acquitted by an all-white jury.
Look magazine published an article with their alleged confession four months later. Both have since died.
Last month, PBS aired the hourlong documentary ``The Murder of Emmett Till'' as part of the ``American Experience'' series.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
``I saw a hole, which I presumed was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side,'' Mobley said in the documentary. ``And I wondered, was it necessary to shoot him?''
Mfume in his letter called the death ``one of the last unsolved cases of the civil rights era.''
Mississippi has reopened other old civil rights murder cases. A fresh look at the 1963 assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Jackson resulted in the 1994 conviction of Byron de la Beckwith.
However, there has been little progress the last few years in trying to build murder cases in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County whose deaths became the subject of the 1988 movie ``Mississippi Burning.''
http://www.BlackAmericaWeb.com Staff
2003/02/02 09:02 PM EDT
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/0103/05till.html
By Ron Harrist
Associated Press
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/index.cfm?ARTICLEID=80262&CATID=4
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The NAACP is calling for prosecutors to reopen the Emmett Till murder case, a possibility the Mississippi attorney general says is remote because the years have wiped away the evidence in the black teenager's 1955 slaying.
The call for a renewed investigation follows a PBS documentary last month about the killing, which became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. The film included the recollections of Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who died last month at age 81 in Chicago.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Friday that its president, Kweisi Mfume, wrote a letter to Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore urging action.
``With the recent passing of Mamie Till Mobley, who fought tirelessly to see justice done in the killing of her son, it is now time to address what remains an ugly mark on the history of Mississippi and the United States,'' the NAACP leader wrote. ``Her extraordinary acts of courage must not be in vain.''
But Moore said reopening the case is unlikely because both suspects have died.
``I am always interested in prosecuting cases where someone has been murdered and the murderer has gotten away,'' he said. ``But you have to have evidence and you have to have a live defendant.''
Moore spoke to The Associated Press before he became aware of the NAACP's statement. Later in the day, his office said he hadn't yet received the letter and couldn't comment on it.
Till was kidnapped from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. The 14-year-old was visiting from Chicago.
Three days later, Till's mutilated body _ unrecognizable except for a ring on his hand _ was found by a fisherman in the Tallahatchie River. Pictures of the body shocked the world.
Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam, were arrested and charged with the murder but were later acquitted by an all-white jury.
Look magazine published an article with their alleged confession four months later. Both have since died.
Last month, PBS aired the hourlong documentary ``The Murder of Emmett Till'' as part of the ``American Experience'' series.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
``I saw a hole, which I presumed was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side,'' Mobley said in the documentary. ``And I wondered, was it necessary to shoot him?''
Mfume in his letter called the death ``one of the last unsolved cases of the civil rights era.''
Mississippi has reopened other old civil rights murder cases. A fresh look at the 1963 assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Jackson resulted in the 1994 conviction of Byron de la Beckwith.
However, there has been little progress the last few years in trying to build murder cases in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County whose deaths became the subject of the 1988 movie ``Mississippi Burning.''
http://www.BlackAmericaWeb.com Staff
