Source: FBI to Exhume Emmett Till's Body

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | May 4, 2005 | Michael Sneed

[One Proud Dad]

Let the dead rest.

[SE Mom]

What a shameful event..

[davisfh]

I can't imagine how there could be much left by now.
The climate in Mississippi pretty much does away with
organic material in that length of time. And I'm assuming
here that his burial was nothing out of the ordinary.

[Ditto]

Let the dead rest.

How about we make the guilty pay for their crimes so the dead can truly rest?

[szweig]

I just don't see how this can help anyone or anything. Please enlighten me...SSZ

[two134711]

How is exhuming a 50 year old corpse going to solve anything? This was a heinous crime, but his murderers are dead. Who else can be punished?

Let us use the tragedies of the past and learn from them.

[Izzy Dunne]

due to the brutal beating he received, an exhumation may provide the evidence they need"

I don't get it - what info can they get from a body buried 50 years ago?
Broken bones, maybe... but what sort of info that would be identifying of the killer?

[MamaTexan]

A horrible shame for this poor boy and his family, and the guilty perps should pay for their crimes.

But with everything going on today (the WOD, etc.) doesn't the Justice Department and the FBI have a few more pressing problems than solving a 50 year old murder?

[MamaTexan]

(the WOD, etc.)

Sorry...should be

(the WOT, etc.)

[Spktyr]

Don't be so sure the guilty parties are dead. If they were 21 when they did the deed, they're only 71 now.

[SE Mom]

I just don't see how this can help anyone or anything. Please enlighten me...SSZ

---

I'm not certain what they're trying to accomplish here either- I meant the murder was shameful.

[Obadiah]

How about we make the guilty pay for their crimes so the dead can truly rest?

Those responsible for this heinous crime should be made to pay. I do not care if they are now 105 years old! You do not wantonly savagely beat and murder a 14 yr old boy and walk. No mercy was shown to this boy and none should be shown to those who committed this crime.

[One Proud Dad]

Even if you can find the perpetrators more than likely they are in their 70's and if found guilty would never serve a day in prison until the appeal process ran it course ( long after their deaths ).

I am a firm believer in punishment, but I don't think any good will come of this that justifies exhumation.

[AppyPappy]

We should take the guys who admitted to doing it and dig them up.

[dhs12345]

On the positive side: it would be nice to learn more about his death. Maybe what is found might help catch his killer.

On the negative side: you know that Jesse and his ilk will use this as an example of racism in the US and will try to extort more money and accuse me and everyone else with white skin of being a racist. Forgetting that this happened before many of us were born.

[Alouette]

an autopsy will be conducted by Cook County Medical Examiner

They'd need to call in a qualified forensic anthropologist, wouldn't they? Examination of a set of 50-year-old remains would not yield any evidence of, say, drowning.

[RichInOC]

It's a noble sentiment to want to see if they can figure out who the accessory players might have been in the Till case. But after fifty years of burial (in what I'm guessing were less than airtight and watertight conditions), and considering that the kid was left to rot in the river for two or three days before that, what forensic evidence do they realistically expect to find? I don't mean to be ghoulish here, but never mind the forensic evidence. How much of him is left? If they can find something, fine. I'm not optimistic.

[sportutegrl]

The people who want to do this just want to rub the South's nose in it. The people who did this are long gone. We aren't the only ones with skeletons in our past, just the only ones who keep getting slammed for it.

[CGTRWK]

Is digging up 50 year old skeletons at the behest of the race baiting establishment the proper use of law enforcement resources?