A 14-year-old boy couldn't find justice fifty years ago, but according to a recent AP story, a modern autopsy might settle some questions about the case that has haunted African Americans.
The case is the murder of Emmett Till who was the subject of a documentary recently aired on PBS. New York-based Keith Beauchamp's documentary is cited as one of several reasons the Justice Department has decided to reopen the investigation.
Till had been visiting his uncle in Mississippi when he was abducted, purportedly for whistling at a white woman in the store where she worked. A mutilated corpse was later found the the Tallahatchie River. The corpse was only identified by a ring.
Science may be able to now provide proof of his identity and the cause of death.
Till's mother is dead. The two men (Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam) who committed the murder and confessed to a journalist much later are also now dead. What remains is the possibility that two accomplices might be charged and the last nagging question (identity of the body), the reason the jury gave for acquitting the two men can be answered.
In a time when the color-blindness of justice is still questioned and the race card can be played either way, this investigation might bring comfort to some yet it doesn't answer how we can achieve justice for all today. Do we have to wait for half a century to pass, the heat of emotion to clear and most of the people directly involved to die before we can look objectively, dispassionately at a case and give a just conclusion?
What kind of justice is that?
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