(CNN) Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation led to the 1955 lynching of Black teen Emmett Till in Mississippi — and whose role in the brutal death was reconsidered by a grand jury as recently as last year — – died in Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office confirmed to CNN.
Donham, 88, died Tuesday in Westlake, according to a death certificate from the coroner.
Malik Shabazz, with Black Lawyers for Justice, said in a statement Thursday that Donham’s legacy “will be one of dishonesty and injustice.”
“Carolyn Bryant’s death brings to a conclusion a painful chapter for the Emmett Till family and for the Black people of America. The saddest part of Bryant’s death is that he was never held accountable for his role. of the death of young Emmett Till, who was a martyr for the Civil Rights Movement,” the statement read.
In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett was beaten and shot to death after Bryant — now Donham — allegedly whistled at Money.
Later, her husband, Roy Bryant, and JW Milam, took Emmett from his bed and ordered him into the back of a pickup truck and beat him before shooting him in the head and dumping his body in Tallahatchie. River. They were both acquitted of murder by an all-white jury after a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett had arrested and threatened her.
Milam, who died in 1980, and Bryant, who died in 1994, confessed to the murder in a 1956 interview with Look magazine.
In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Donham on any charges.
Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her hand and waist and propositioned her, saying she had been with “White girls before.” But years later, when professor Timothy Tyson raised that test testimony in a 2008 interview with Donham, he admitted he told him, “That part is not true.”
The interview is included in Tyson’s book, “The Blood of Emmett Till.”
In a statement after Donham’s death, Tyson said: “68 years ago, there was the unspeakable murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago. But the truth is Unspeakable is the American social order that did nothing about Emmett Till or the thousands of others like him.”
The prospect that the woman at the center of Emmett’s case recanted her testimony — which the U.S. Justice Department said in a memo contradicted statements she made during a state trial in 1955 and later to the FBI — has prompting calls for authorities to reopen. the investigation.
The DOJ, which had already investigated and closed the case in 2007, reopened the investigation into Emmett’s murder in 2018. But the case was closed in December 2021 after the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ decided it could not prove that Donham lied. When questioned directly, Donham vehemently denied to investigators that he had recanted his testimony.
In August 2022, a Leflore County, Mississippi, grand jury declined to indict Donham, deciding there was insufficient evidence to indict him on charges of kidnapping and murder, according to a statement from by District Attorney Dewayne Richardson.
The grand jury heard testimony from witnesses detailing the investigation into the case from 2004 to the present and considered both cases, Richardson said.
“After hearing every aspect of the investigation and evidence collected regarding Donham’s involvement, the Grand Jury returned a ‘No Bill’ on the Kidnapping and Manslaughter charges,” the statement said. “The killing of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this country continue to be with the family of Emmett Till.”
The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett’s cousin and the last living witness to the abduction, said Thursday after Donham’s death: “Our hearts go out to the family of Carolyn Bryant Donham. As a person of faith for more than in 60 years, I know that any loss of life is sad and there is no ill will or anger towards him.”
“Although no one is now responsible for the death of my cousin and best friend, it is up to everyone to take responsibility for the challenges we face in overcoming racial injustice,” he said.
CNN’s Justin Gamble and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.