Connect with us

Mississippi Today

Few options remain for Mississippians convicted of certain felonies to regain voting rights

Published

2 years ago

on

Mississippians convicted of certain felonies have few options to regain their voting rights — a standard practice in most other states — after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up a case attempting to end the lifetime ban on voting.

The nation’s highest court, by a 7-2 vote in late June, refused to hear a Mississippi lawsuit arguing that the state’s lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of certain felonies was unconstitutional. Racist white lawmakers in 1890 who wrote the provision into the current Mississippi Constitution said plainly that they adopted it to keep African Americans from voting.

READ MORE: Attorney General Lynn Fitch argues in federal court that Jim Crow-era voting ban should be upheld

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Mississippi case, the state remains in the minority as one of fewer than 10 to impose a lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of felonies.

It also appears efforts to remove the ban through the courts have been exhausted. Legal advocates who have long been fighting the Jim Crow provision are now turning their focus to the only viable solution left: the legislative process.

“At a time when most states have repealed their disfranchisement laws, we need to remove from Mississippi’s Constitution this backward provision that was enacted for racist reasons,” said Vangela M. Wade, the president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, which helped craft the lawsuit that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. “Here in the 21st Century, just and reasonable minded people must not allow this outdated relic of the 19th Century to stand or define a new Mississippi. The Legislature now has the duty to begin the repeal process.”

The most obvious way to repeal the lifetime ban is to amend the Mississippi Constitution. There is currently one way to amend the Mississippi Constitution: the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, must pass a resolution proposing a change. Then, voters on a statewide ballot must approve that change.

Florida voters recently approved a repeal of that state’s lifetime ban on people convicted of felonies being able to vote. But in Florida, the proposal to repeal the lifetime ban was done through a voter ballot initiative instead of through the Legislature.

Mississippi, though, no longer has an initiative process, which allows voters to gather enough signatures to bypass the Legislature and place an issue directly on the ballot. Mississippi’s voter initiative was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2021, and the Legislature, despite repeated promises from its leaders, has refused to pass a resolution to restore the process.

There is a way for disenfranchised voters to have their voting rights restored under the current Mississippi Constitution. But that process is rarely used and incredibly cumbersome. The Legislature, by a two-thirds vote, can restore voting rights. Historically, the Legislature has restored the rights one person at a time by passing individual resolutions. But there appears to be a consensus that legislators could pass one bill enacting rights for a large group of people. In the 1940s, for example, legislators passed a bill restoring voting rights for people convicted of felonies who served in World War II.

Additionally, the governor can restore voting rights. But both current Gov. Tate Reeves and his predecessor, Phil Bryant, have refused to grant any pardons.

In other states, governors have restored voting rights to large groups of people in a single order. It is not clear whether a Mississippi governor could do the same, and such a gubernatorial effort might face a court challenge.

All said, there is no indication that the current Republican leadership is interested in restoring voting rights on a large basis to people convicted of felonies. Since they took control of both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion in 2012, Republicans have been reluctant to restore voting rights.

Lawmakers did not restore anyone’s voting rights during the 2023 legislative session.

READ MORE: Key GOP lawmaker says ‘it’s past time’ to address Mississippi’s lifetime felony voting ban

In 2022, the Legislature did pass a bill to clarify that people who had certain primarily non-violent convictions expunged would regain the right to vote. But Reeves vetoed the bill, and legislators made no effort to override the veto.

Years ago, efforts were made to reach a compromise. Under the current legal system, people convicted of certain serious crimes, such as selling drugs or sexual assault of minors, do not lose the right to vote and can even continue to vote while incarcerated. On the other hand, people convicted of what many would consider lesser crimes, such as writing a bad check, lose their right to vote forever.

To address that disparity, some lawmakers over the years proposed banning all people from voting while they were in state custody, but allow them to vote once they finished their sentences. None of those bills, however, have been adopted.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a blistering dissent arguing the Supreme Court should take up the case challenging the constitutionality of the Mississippi provision.

In response, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said he would take steps when possible to ensure people did not lose their voting rights.

“My office will seek to protect the accused’s voting rights, where possible, when making charging decisions,” Owens said in a news release. “If a person is accused of a disenfranchising crime, and a parallel charge is available that does not affect his or her voting rights, my office will proceed on the parallel charge. I challenge other district attorneys across the state to join me in taking up Justice Jackson’s charge and adopt similar policies to protect our citizens from discriminatory disenfranchisement.”

Those crimes placed in the constitution where conviction costs a person the right to vote are bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and burglary. The framers of the constitution did not include murder and rape as disenfranchising crimes, though they were added years later. More recently, the list has been expanded through opinions of the state Attorney General to include modern day crimes that matched those included in the 1890 Constitution.

The framers of the Mississippi Constitution said plainly in 1890 that they included those crimes because they believed African Americans were more likely to commit them. The framers also included other racist provisions to keep Black Mississippians from voting, such as poll taxes and so-called literacy tests.

Those provisions, unlike felony suffrage, were all struck down by the federal courts — not by state legislative action.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves vetoes bill easing Jim Crow-era voting restrictions

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Related Topics:

Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

Published

8 hours ago

on

April 25, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

Published

9 hours ago

on

April 25, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming

Published

9 hours ago

on

April 25, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:06:00

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.  

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice. 

The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other. 

The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts. 

But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents. 

The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.  

Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals. 

Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation. 

The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power. 

The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court

The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans. 

The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district. 

It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week. 

While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races. 

The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Continue Reading

Trending