Mississippi Today
Do voters know enough to elect Mississippi judges?
Here’s a quick pop quiz:
Who are the justices on the state Supreme Court running for reelection this year?
What judicial elections will be on the Mississippi ballot this November?
Who are the judges who hear cases where you live?
And, what are the differences between chancery and circuit judges?
Granted, that last one is a tough one.
Odds are many people cannot answer those questions and others involving the Mississippi judiciary. And that might be considered disappointing since most judges in Mississippi, including the nine justices on the state Supreme Court, the 10 Court of Appeal judges and the 57 circuit and 52 chancery court judges are elected.
There are a few instances in Mississippi where judges are appointed, but in general the state Constitution mandates that judges be elected instead of appointed.
In the 1990s there were serious discussions in the Legislature about whether Mississippi judges should be elected or appointed. Some states elect judges while others have judges appointed by the governor or some type of judicial commission. Some states have a combination of both elected and appointed judges. Other states require appointed judges to stand for a retention election. In some states, judges are appointed for a specified number of years.
On the federal level, President Joe Biden recently has proposed changing the tenure for the United States Supreme Court justices from a lifetime appointment to an appointment for 18 years.
No doubt, judges play a vital role in a representative democracy.
The Legislature chose in the 1990s to leave in place Mississippi’s system of electing nearly all judges, though the end result of those discussions was a subtle but important change in the method of selecting judges.
The change was that when an appellate judge steps down the governor can name a replacement to serve the remainder of his term if the term is more than halfway complete. And even when a special election is required, the appointed judge gets to serve for at least nine months before the election.
Previously, at least in many cases, a special election was held much sooner to replace the retiring judge.
The ability to serve out the remainder of a term, especially if it is an eight year term that Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeal judges serve, gives a gubernatorial appointee a tremendous advantage โ the ability to run essentially as an incumbent.
And it should be noted that there is a long tradition in the state of judges, especially Supreme Court justices, leaving office before their terms expire.
The issue of Mississippi’s system of selecting justices came to the forefront this past week as four of the five candidates vying for a Central District Supreme Court race spoke and campaigned at the Neshoba County Fair.
Justice James Kitchens is seeking reelection in the Central District. In a sense, Kitchens is an anomaly. In most instances, justices on the Supreme Court are first appointed by the governor as mentioned earlier to replace a retiring incumbent and then elected to a full eight year term, or the justice made it to the state’s highest court by winning an open seat.
Kitchens is the rare justice who earned his seat on the state Supreme Court by defeating an incumbent โ then-Chief Justice James Smith in 2008.
Theย other candidates in the Central District race this year are Republican state Sen. Jennifer Branning, Jackson attorneys Abby Gale Robinson and Byron Carter and former Court of Appeals Judge Ceola James.
In the Southern District incumbent Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam is being challenged by Coast attorney David Sullivan, son of a former Supreme Court justice.
Also in south Mississippi, Assistant District Attorney Ian Baker, Chancery Court Judge Jennifer Schloegel and municipal Judge Amy St. Pe are vying for a Court of Appeals post.
Supreme Court Justices Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both of the Northern District, are running unopposed.
The judicial contests might be Mississippi’s most competitive elections this year. The federal elections on the state ballot โ for president and for U.S. senator and representatives — are not expected to be competitive in Mississippi.
But some of the judicial elections, which many Mississippians know little about, could be real donnybrooks.
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.
Why NewsMatch and Why Now?
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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