The Justice Department announced today it was reopening the investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy whose lynching death in the Mississippi Delta in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman helped spark the beginning of the civil rights movement.
Two men were acquitted by an all-white jury, but for years family members and journalists who have reported on the case have said that other people may have been involved as well.
"If indeed others are implicated and they can be identified, they can still be prosecuted," R. Alexander Acosta, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at a news conference this morning. "While the five-year federal statute of limitations in effect in 1955 has since expired, prosecution can still be brought in state court."
Mr. Acosta said that justice department has formed a partnership with federal prosecutors, the F.B.I. and local law enforcement officials to begin a new investigation of the murder. Their findings will form the basis of any new prosecutions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/national/10CND-TILL.html?ex=1084852800&en=94feeb3c6f280f5b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
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