Mississippi Today
AG Fitch has resolved few officer-involved shootings
In the year since Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch received exclusive responsibility to prosecute law enforcement-involved shootings, her office has moved forward on only a fraction of the nearly 50 cases.
To date, Fitch is pursuing charges against six former Rankin County officers who beat and tortured two Black men in January. She has also sought an indictment for the Oct. 6, 2022, shooting of 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan in Gulfport. In three cases, the attorney general’s office reviewed the shootings and found that officers’ actions were justified.
Since July 1, 2022, when the law went into effect, through the end of July 2023, 23 people have died in shootings by law enforcement, according to records from the Department of Public Safety. Those fatalities account for half of the officer shootings in the year.
Investigation into these law enforcement agencies starts with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which shares its findings with the attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office then is supposed to present the case to a grand jury in the county where the shooting happened, and if the jury chooses to indict, the office would prosecute, according to the law.
Fitch’s prosecution of the five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and a former Richland Police Department officer came only after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the officers pleading guilty in federal court.
โThis brutal attack caused more than physical harm to these two individual victims; it severed that vital trust with the people,โ Fitch said in a Thursday statement. โThis abuse of power will not be tolerated.โ
She added that the men who committed the heinous acts are an exception, rather than the rule, and that most law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect the community.
Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office declined to prosecute three times and did not secure an indictment for one officer-involved shooting case that happened between July 2022 and July 2023. The majority of cases โ fatal and nonfatal โ remain under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation or the AG’s office, said spokesperson Debbee Hancock.
โThe Attorney General’s Office is committed to justice in these and all cases, and upon completion of MBI’s investigation, we undertake a thorough review of all facts and law to determine if use of force was appropriate in the individual instance,โ Hancock said in a statement.
The attorney general’s office presented the Oct. 6, 2022, shooting of McMillan to a grand jury, which in February declined to indict and find criminal conduct for the Gulfport police officer who shot the teenager outside a Family Dollar store.
โAs such, no further criminal action will be taken by this Office in this matter,โ the office said in a February statement.
Katrina Mateen has called for answers and accountability for her son’s death following the shooting and since the grand jury ruling, the Sun Herald reported.ย
The attorney general’s office also reviewed the use of force in three cases and declined to prosecute:
- July 14, 2022: A Forrest County sheriff’s deputy shot 45-year-old Corey Maurice McCarty Hughes, a Black Hattiesburg man, whose family was trying to get him into mental health treatment.
- Aug. 22, 2022: A Biloxi police officer shot 41-year-old Mable Arrington, a Black woman, outside a housing complex.
- Oct. 19, 2022: Lafayette County sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic call shot 44-year-old Jason Smith in Oxford. Smith argued with a woman and her children were barricaded inside their room, WTVA reported.
Family members of McCarty Hughes, the Hattiesburg man, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against 10 unnamed sheriff’s deputies and the county.
Other than the January Rankin County incident, there have been no reviews or indictments for the other 18 officer shootings that happened this year. Community members have called for answers and the release of any existing body camera footage in several of those incidents.
In Indianola, an officer accused of shooting an 11-year-old boy in the chest has been suspended without pay and faces legal action: a $5 million lawsuit against him and the city and potential criminal charges filed by the boy’s mother.ย
District attorneys can handle cases of law enforcement officers whose use of force results in death, but these indictments are not common in Mississippi or around the country, especially as officers are legally able to use lethal force if they fear for their lives, Mississippi Today previously reported.ย
However, sometimes officers can face criminal charges for actions while on the job. In May, the Hinds County District Attorney’s office secured indictments against three former Jackson Police Department officers for the death of 41-year-old Keith Murriel. In a federal lawsuit, his family argues the officers used excessive force and failed to render medical aid.
And in a rare twist, Fitch is at odds with the Hinds County DA’s office, urging a reversal in the culpable negligence manslaughter conviction of Anthony Fox, a former Jackson police officer convicted a year ago in the 2019 death of George Robinson.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ
A federal grand jury concluded: โFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.
Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ25-foot law,โ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.
Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโnot only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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