The Justice Department is reopening the investigation into the death of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy whose brutal murder in 1955 added to the momentum of the Civil Rights movement, The Associated Press reports.
While the case initially closed in 2007, its reopening comes after witness Carolyn Donham admitted in 2008 that she was misleading when she testified that Till whistled at her and made sexual advances in a store in Mississippi. Donham's then-husband and his half brother were accused of murdering Till after the alleged advances — going to his home to abduct him, beat him, shoot him, mutilate his body, and finally dump it in the Tallahatchie River. The men were acquitted, but later confessed to the crime and were not retried; they are both now dead.
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