Ronald K. L. Collins has published Tragedy on Trial: The Story of the Infamous Emmett Till Murder Trial (Carolina Academic Press):
Tragedy on Trial reveals as never before the entire and shocking story of the 1955 trial of Emmett Till's murderers. Based on extensive research, and accompanied by photos of the trial and a “For the Record” Introduction by Lonnie G. Bunch, III (Secretary of the Smithsonian), the brisk narrative brings the story alive, revealing all its manipulations of justice, including:
- the sheriff who from beginning to end put the fix in for the defendants;
- the ethically conflicted county attorney who selected the jurors;
- the successful scheme to never charge the guilty defendants with kidnapping;
- the defense lawyers who corruptly built their case on racism of the cruelest kind;
- the White woman who falsely accused Emmett Till, inflaming an already bigoted all-White male jury;
- the Black witnesses for the defense who were rounded up and secretly jailed in distant jurisdictions;
- the defense's medical “experts” who were not experts; and
- the defense's closing arguments (never recorded but now reconstructed) directed to “every Anglo-Saxon” member of the jury.
Ronald Collins offers an original and in-depth account that highlights the fearless efforts of Mamie Till and the courageous friends and family who testified. Collins also uncovers the truth behind the widely read 1956 Look magazine story, correcting falsehoods that persist to this day.
--Dan Ernst
