Gerald Weissinger Chatham (February 17, 1906 - October 9, 1956) was an American lawyer best known for acting as lead prosecutor in the infamous Emmett Till

Emmett Till

Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...

 case in 1955.

Biography

Chatham was born in Hernando

Hernando, Mississippi

Hernando is a city in central DeSoto County, Mississippi. The population was 6,812 at the 2000 census. The 2006 census estimate reflects a population of 10,580. Hernando is the county seat of DeSoto County, the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area. US Hwy 51 and the I-55...

, Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 in 1906. He attended the University of Mississippi

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...

 for both his undergraduate and law degrees. At the age of 35, he became District Attorney of Tallahatchie County

Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

-National protected areas:*Coldwater River National Wildlife Refuge *Tallahatchie National Wildlife Refuge -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 14,903 people, 5,263 households, and 3,826 families residing in the county. The population density was 23 people per square mile...

 and would hold that station until 1955, the year that he prosecuted J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for the murder of Emmett Till

Emmett Till

Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...

. Chatham's family claims that the pressures of the trial harmed his health and ultimately led to a fatal heart attack a year after its completion. His son, Gerald Chatham Jr., who was 11-years-old at the time of the trial, would later serve two terms as district attorney in the same district as his father.

Emmett Till trial

Chatham was aided by Robert B. Smith III and James Hamilton Caldwell, Jr. during the trial, which started on September 19, 1955. He understood the national attention that the case was attracting, but said that he was "not concerned with the pressure and agitation which the trial ... produced, either within or outside the state of Mississippi". Chatham arduously implored the 12 members of the all-white jury to look past prejudice to bring justice to the crime. Nevertheless, a not guilty verdict was delivered on September 23, after just 67 minutes of deliberation. As he died a year after the trial, Chatham would not live to read of Milam and Bryant's confession in Look Magazine

Look (American magazine)

Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...

, vindicating his prosecution of the two men.