Within a day after Till's disappearance, both Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam had been arrested for his abduction. Both men admitted to taking Till from Wright's home, but insisted that they let him go in Money. On September 3, the County's sheriff, H. C. Strider, made the surprising statement that he doubted the body pulled from the Tallahatchie River was that of Emmett Till. Strider told reporters, "The body looked more like that of a grown man instead of a young boy," and had probably been in the river "four or five days", too long to have been the body of Till, abducted just three days earlier. Strider expressed his opinion that Till "is still alive." The theory for a murder defense now had the obvious support of the County's sheriff (The Murder of Emmett Till).
On September 6,1955, a grand jury in Mississippi charged Milam and Bryant for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. They both plead innocent. They were held in jail until the start of the trial. On September 19, the kidnapping and murder trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant opened in Sumner, Mississippi, the county seat of Tallahatchie County. Jury selection began and, with blacks and white women banned from serving, an all-white, 12-man jury made up of nine farmers, two carpenters, and one insurance agent was selected. On September 20, Judge Curtis Swango recesses the court to allow more witnesses to be found. It is the first time in Mississippi history that local law enforcement, local NAACP leaders and black and white reporters team up to locate sharecroppers who saw Milam's truck and overheard Emmett being beaten (The Murder of Emmett Till).
On September 21, Moses Wright, Emmett Till's great uncle, did the unthinkable: he accused two white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stood up and pointed his finger at Milam and Bryant. He testified that they came to his house and kidnapped Emmett (The Murder of Emmett Till).
On September 23, Milam and Bryant are acquitted of murdering Emmett Till after only 67 minutes of the jury discussing the case. One juror told a reporter that they wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't stopped to drink pop. They stalled to make it look good (Vox). The jury explained that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of the body. Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam stood before photographers, lit up cigars, and kissed their wives in celebration of the not guilty verdict (The death of Emmett Till).
Moses Wright and another poor black Mississippian who testified, Willie Reed, left Mississippi and were smuggled to Chicago. Once there, Reed collapsed and suffered a nervous breakdown (The Murder of Emmett Till).
The Memphis Commercial Appeal published an article reporting that Louis Till was executed by the U.S. Army in Italy in 1945 for raping two Italian women and killing a third. Mississippi Senator James O. Eastland had leaked the information to the press. They were trying to suggest that Emmett’s behavior ran in the family. Mamie Till had not received her ex-husband's Army records, and she wondered how a senator, but not a widow, would receive that information (The Murder of Emmett Till).
No government Help!
Mamie turned to the federal government for help, to no avail. Mamie Till went to Washington to press the federal government to reopen the case. Despite 1000’s of letters protesting Mississippi’s handling of the murder, President Dwight Eisenhower and FBI director J Edgar Hoover ruled out a federal investigation. President Eisenhower did not even answer Mamie Till’s telegram. J.Edgar Hoover wrote in a memo: "There has been no allegation made that the victim [Emmett Till] has been subjected to the deprivation of any right or privilege which is secured and protected by the Constitution and the laws of the United States..."(The Murder of Emmett Till).
The truth Comes Out
Look magazine published an article written by Alabama journalist William Bradford Huie, entitled The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi. Huie offered Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam $4,000 to tell how they killed Emmett Till. Milam spoke for the record (Vox). He later wrote antother article for Look magazine titled "What's Happened to the Emmett Till Killers?" Huie writes that, "Milam does not regret the killing, though it has brought him nothing but trouble." Blacks have stopped frequenting stores owned by the Milam and Bryant families and put them out of business. Bryant was forced to take up welding for income, and both men were disliked by the white community. Two of their defense attorneys helped facilitate the interview that was published in Look magazine in January 1956. After the town's show of support at the trial, the men talked freely about how they killed the young teen from Chicago. But soon after the article came out, both men were hated. Holding steadfast to their racist pride, the pair would be haunted by the death of Emmett Till in every instance and never found peace again. J. W. Milam died in Mississippi of cancer in December of 1980 and Roy Bryant died of cancer in September of 1990 (The Murder of Emmet Till).