This is The Marshall Project - Jackson’s newsletter, a monthly digest of criminal justice news from around Mississippi gathered by our staff of local journalists. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters.
In this edition, a 37-year-old man died after being assaulted in Hinds County’s long-embattled Raymond Detention Center within two days of being arrested. Also, Jackson voters chose to unseat Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who is awaiting trial on federal bribery charges; and the oldest man on Mississippi’s death row appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
– Caleb Bedillion and Daja E. Henry
Death in Raymond Detention Center
On April 22, 37-year-old Anthony Johnson was found dead in his cell following an apparent assault at the Raymond Detention Center, according to Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones. A cause of death has not been released. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating.
Johnson had been arrested by the Capitol Police two days earlier on auto theft and simple assault charges, according to Jones. He was listed as homeless on the jail docket. He had been convicted of stealing items from a vehicle last year and was sentenced to two years of supervised probation with drug, alcohol and health care treatments, according to court documents.
Johnson’s was the first in-custody death in the Raymond Detention Center this year. In February, two other people died in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, which houses some Hinds County detainees, more than two hours north of Jackson.
Hinds County’s Raymond Detention Center has been plagued with problems since it opened in 1994, and is poised to be taken over by a federal receiver after nearly a decade of litigation.
The Department of Justice sued the county for routinely violating the civil rights of people in its custody, resulting in a consent decree in 2016. The consent decree is a legal agreement between the federal government and the county in which both parties must settle on a plan to fix a problem.
Part of the agreement included sending monitors — independent parties appointed by the court — to observe and measure progress. However, at the time of Johnson’s death, court-appointed monitors had not visited the detention center since 2022. The visits had been paused by the county’s appeal to a higher court, which upheld the receivership earlier this year. The monitors’ first visit since the appeal was scheduled for April 29.
At least five people, including Johnson, have died in the detention center from 2022 through April 2025, according to Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin.
Horhn defeats Lumumba in Jackson mayoral runoff
State Sen. John Horhn will be the next Democratic nominee and likely the next mayor of Jackson. He received nearly 75% of the primary runoff vote in a decisive victory over Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Horhn is slated to advance to the June 3 general election, facing Republican nominee Kenny Gee and four independent candidates.
Horhn, a 32-year state senator and four-time mayoral candidate, ran a well-funded campaign that centered on his relationships as a state lawmaker. His latest campaign finance report showed more than $230,000 in contributions from fellow Mississippi lawmakers, business owners, real estate developers and attorneys in Mississippi, as well as a few out-of-state contributions.
Horhn also received endorsements from U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, fellow state lawmakers including Rep. Zakiya Summers and Rep. Earle Banks, and former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, who preceded Thompson in office and served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton.
Horhn campaigned on bringing more financial resources to Jackson. While he has not given specifics on his crime and public safety plans, Horhn stated throughout his campaign a desire to pursue more funding for law enforcement.
“Our police department needs to be beefed up with personnel, folks who are on the ground, the cops who are on the streets. We need more equipment and training and technology,” Horhn said following his win in the primary, in an interview with “The Sit Down” host Russ Latino.
Death row prisoner appeals to U.S. Supreme Court over mental health evidence
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch wants an execution date for the longest-serving prisoner on Mississippi’s death row, but Richard Gerald Jordan is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Jordan, now 78, was convicted in 1976 for the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter earlier that year in the Gulf Coast region. After killing Marter, Jordan attempted to collect a ransom from her husband, a Gulfport banker.
Years of legal appeals followed, with Jordan repeatedly winning new trials. He was tried four times in all for Marter’s murder, most recently in 1998, with each trial resulting in a conviction. He is currently one of the country’s longest-serving death row prisoners. Five people are known to have been sentenced to death in 1976 and are still awaiting execution, according to a spokesperson for the Death Penalty Information Center.
The current appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court involves his sentencing from the 1998 conviction.
At issue is a requirement by the U.S. Supreme Court that, when needed, indigent defendants must be provided by the state with an independent mental health expert who is not working for the prosecution.
Jordan’s lawyers argue that even though he wanted to cite post-traumatic stress from his Vietnam War military service as a mitigating factor in his 1998 sentencing, he was not given a truly independent psychiatrist. Instead, the court appointed a state employee to evaluate Jordan and the evaluation was provided to the prosecution before Jordan’s lawyers had determined whether they would use the report. The prosecution ultimately used the report against Jordan during sentencing.
Amid a tangled history of appeals, the Mississippi Supreme Court has twice ruled against Jordan’s arguments about the independence of the mental health expert, most recently in October 2024.
Jordan claims that the state’s high court has ignored the relevant legal standards and that the U.S. Supreme Court must step in.
Attorneys with the state have until early May to file their arguments in the case.
Even as Jordan’s appeal remains ongoing, the U.S. Supreme Court this week decided not to hear an appeal from Cory Godbolt, another incarcerated man on Mississippi’s death row. Godbolt was convicted in 2020 of killing eight people, including his mother-in-law and a local sheriff’s deputy.
Also in the news
Former Pearl officers liable for excessive force: A federal jury held former Pearl police officers Jonathon Welker and Jacob Lang liable in connection with the beating of a Rankin County resident. They have been ordered to pay him a combined $90,000 in damages. WLBT
Vacancy on federal court: U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock took senior status on April 15, leaving an open seat on the bench. President Donald Trump can appoint a replacement. Hers is one of two vacancies Trump can fill in the Northern District of Mississippi. Mississippi Today
Prison death under investigation: The Mississippi Department of Corrections is investigating the death of 53-year-old Melvin Cancer, which was initially ruled a heart attack. Cancer died at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in January, while serving an eight-year sentence for aggravated assault. A recent autopsy declared his death a homicide. No one has been charged in the case. Mississippi Today
Domestic violence review board to be created: A new law makes Mississippi the 45th state to plan to establish a board to review domestic violence deaths. Mississippi Today’s analysis found at least 300 Mississippians who died from domestic violence from 2020 through 2024. Mississippi Today
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