Benson read a portion of the letter issued to the Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., Till’s cousin and best friend, who was in the Mississippi house when Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night: “In 2017, professor Timothy Tyson (with the publication of “The Blood of Emmett Till”) alleged that Carolyn Bryant, now Carolyn Donham, the wife of one of the confessed murderers and a witness to events leading up to the murder, had in an interview with him recanted previous accounts she had given of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Till’s murder. In response, the Dept. of Justice and the FBI examined whether Carolyn Bryant had recanted and if so, whether she had information that would allow prosecution of any living person, including Carolyn Bryant herself. Following the exhaustive, multiyear investigation, which included fully reviewing that new evidence and examining the evidence gathered from an earlier investigation, we regret to inform you that for the reasons explained more fully below, we have not uncovered sufficient evidence to support a federal prosecution.”
