Murder Of Emmett Till In Chris Crowe's, Mississippi Trial

“I say to you, gentlemen, your forefathers will absolutely turn over in their graves if you don’t set these boys loose.”(191)These were the last words spoken to the Jury during the trial of the Murder of Emmett Till as told in Chris Crowe’s, Mississippi Trial, 1955. How could the prosecution have lost in a case so black and white? The only thing I can think of that would cause the Jury to acquit the defendants is a lapse in judgement. The prosecution should have won because the defense lacked in evidence, they had eyewitness accounts, and Bryant and Milam confessed.
First off, the defense lacked in evidence, or at least enough to debunk the prosecution, to acquit Bryant and Milam. When you think about it, the defense had almost nothing to prove

Their first eyewitness was Mose Wright. When Mose took the stand he stated, "'Bout two o'clock somebody come pounding on the door. They said, 'Preacher, preacher.' One of em said, 'This is Mr. Bryant'"(166). Uncle Mose's testimony put Bryant and Milam at the scene of the crime and proved that they kidnapped Till. The next eyewitness was Willie Read, a farm hand at Bryant's farm. He testified that he, "...heard someone getting licked pretty good inside there, and lots of crying"(180). This shows that even if Bryant and Milam didn’t kill Till, they knew who did. The prosecution also had the testimony of the undertaker that got Emmett's body out of the river. The undertaker said, "...his head was beaten up pretty bad, so it'd a been hard to tell right off who it was no matter what..."(174) The undertaker also stated that they identified him by a ring that only he could

How is it possible to be set free for a crime you confessed to? Even if they didn’t kill Till, they knew something about it. The confession should have been enough to convict Bryant and Milam for the murder of Till. If this had happened today they would have been sent to jail just for kidnapping him, for starters. Also for later revealing that they savagely murdered Till. In the news article, Missing Chicago Negro Youth Found In Tallahatchie River it says that, "Sheriff Smith said Bryant admitted to taking the boy from his uncle's home..."(122). That means that they had something to do with the