Expert Responds to Grand Jury Declining to Indict Woman Whose Accusation Led to Emmett Till Lynching

A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and a newly revealed memoir by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Christopher Benson, associate professor at Northwestern University and the author of “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America,” comments on the decision.