MIDWEST

FBI EXHUMES EMMETT TILL’S BODY

ALSIP, Ill.- Federal investigators unearthed a concrete vault containing Emmett Till’s casket at a suburban Chicago cemetery yesterday, hoping to find clues into his 1955 slaying in Mississippi that became a key event in the civil rights movement.

The muddy cement vault was loaded onto a flatbed truck and shipped to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, where an autopsy was planned. No autopsy was performed when the 14-year-old black Chicagoan was killed.

“One purpose of this is to positively identify the remains and dispel any rumors as to whether it is truly Emmett Till or not,” an FBI spokesman, Frank Bochte, said. A second reason, he said, is to “see if any further evidence can be looked at to help Mississippi officials bring additional charges if warranted.” Officials from the Tallahatchie County, Miss., prosecutor’s office, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI bureau in Jackson, Miss., were on hand for the exhumation. The work began after a brief, private graveside service for three members of Till’s family. They later declined to comment.

Investigators with shovels and a backhoe began digging under a white tent erected over Till’s grave. The family was allowed onto the cemetery grounds, but onlookers were corralled outside the entrance. An assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago field office, Arthur Everett, said the vault came out of the ground easily. He described the moment it left the ground as a relief for agents and “sublime” for Till’s family. Mr. Everett, who is black, grew up in the South and was born the year Till was slain. “For me, personally, the event signifies that even though the system of justice sometimes turns very slowly, it still turns,” he said.

– Associated Press

WEST

JUDGE GIVES JURY INSTRUCTIONS IN MICHAEL JACKSON MOLESTATION TRIAL

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Jurors in the Michael Jackson trial were given the instructions yesterday that will govern their deliberations into whether the pop star molested a teenage boy.

The superior court judge, Rodney Melville, told jurors that closing arguments will begin today and they will be given the case sometime Friday.

Mr. Jackson sat stone-still for nearly two hours as the judge read lengthy instructions hammered out by attorneys over more than a day. Mr. Jackson appeared glum as he left the courthouse, rushing past reporters at the end of the day.

The pop star was “nervous” and “upset,” said his spokeswoman, Raymone Bain.

“He realizes in the next few days there will be jury deliberations,” she said. “It’s a very difficult situation to sit in there and know your life is in the balance. He has strong faith in God and in the judicial system. He knows his fate is in the hands of 12 jurors.”

Mr. Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor in February or March 2003, plying him with wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut damaging aspects of the documentary “Living With Michael Jackson.” The documentary showed Mr. Jackson holding hands with the boy and the singer saying he allows children to sleep in his bed in an innocent way.

– Associated Press