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In the wake of the Callais decision, a federal judge has to reconsider a Mississippi case that could change the landscape of voting rights. Plus, a man on Mississippi’s death row wins at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office will receive more funding. - Caleb Bedillion and Daja E. Henry
Mississippi Supreme Court elections lawsuit faces new hurdles
Mississippi was a key battleground of the Civil Rights Movement.
Now, the state is on the front lines of a new fight over voting rights.
Last August, a federal judge ruled that the voting map used for Mississippi Supreme Court elections illegally dilutes Black voting strength. U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock’s ruling was based on Section 2 of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. In a state that’s about 38% Black, there is only one Black justice on the nine-member state Supreme Court.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court dramatically weakened the Voting Rights Act last month in the case of Louisiana v. Callais. The decision will make it harder to win voting discrimination lawsuits, like the one over the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Following the Callais decision, a federal appeals court sent the Mississippi Supreme Court redistricting case back to Aycock so she can consider it again using the new standard required by the Callais ruling.
Nationally, political and legal analysts have closely scrutinized how Callais will impact congressional elections this fall. Across the South, states such as Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana have rushed to redraw congressional districts to eliminate Black-majority districts.
With primaries already conducted, Mississippi Republicans decided not to draw new maps this year. Many of those officials are openly talking about significant redistricting to take place next year.
But the ruling doesn’t just impact federal elections, like Congress. It impacts state and local races too — like the judicial races at issue in the lawsuit that has returned to Aycock’s court.
Here’s the reason Mississippians, as well as those beyond the state, ought to be paying attention to this case: It could be an early test of the new legal standard. One very consequential feature of the Callais ruling is that it makes gerrymandering intended to advantage a specific political party a permissible goal of the redistricting process.
That means Republican-controlled states now likely have free rein to eliminate voting districts where minority voters predominate to further the goal of creating new district lines that favor Republicans.
“It’s going to be just lightning-strike rare for a Voting Rights Act claim to work where partisanship is permitted,” election law expert Justin Levitt told The Marshall Project.
However, Mississippi Supreme Court elections are nonpartisan, and that could make it the kind of case that’s still possible, but difficult, to win even under the newly restrictive requirements.
Read the story.
SCOTUS rules for man on Mississippi death row
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man on Mississippi’s death row, based on potential racial bias in the jury selection process. It is the second time in recent years that the high court has found prosecutorial misconduct in cases handled by District Attorney Doug Evans.
Terry Pitchford was convicted of capital murder for his role in a 2004 robbery near Grenada, Mississippi. During the robbery, Pitchford’s accomplice shot and killed Reuben Britt, a White store owner. In a plea agreement, his accomplice was sentenced to 20 years, while Pitchford was sentenced to death.
The Supreme Court’s ruling cites the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky decision, which established that attorneys cannot exclude jurors solely based on race, and created a process for judges to evaluate claims of racial bias.
Pitchford’s appeal argued that Evans’ office used racial discrimination to exclude potential jurors who were Black. The prosecutor used peremptory strikes, which can be used to exclude jurors without explanation, on four of the five potential Black jurors. The high court found that when Pitchford’s lawyer challenged these strikes, the court skipped a necessary step to negate the challenge. The final jury consisted of 11 White people and 1 Black person.
“In this case, whether due to confusion, oversight, an overly hurried jury selection process, or some other cause, things broke down, and the ordinary trial-court procedure for resolving Batson claims at step three never occurred — notwithstanding the repeated efforts of Pitchford’s counsel to pursue and preserve the Batson objection,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion.
The court ruled similarly in 2019 in the case of Curtis Flowers, a Mississippi man who faced trial six times for the same murders. Prosecutors repeatedly used peremptory strikes to disqualify Black jurors in Flowers’ trials. He was wrongfully convicted four of the six times and spent more than two decades on death row. The other two trials ended in mistrials.
A study by APM Reports found that during Evans’ tenure, prosecutors used peremptory strikes to exclude Black potential jurors at more than four times the rate at which they struck White jurors. Evans retired in 2023.
What happens next for Pitchford is unclear. He could face another state trial.
One-time funding boost headed toward public defense in Hinds County
Additional money is headed toward the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office — at least for a time.
The Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted this week to take about $261,000 left over from a water tower project and reallocate it to the public defender’s office.
This follows a request from earlier this year by Public Defender Gail Lowery for more money amid a staffing crisis in her office. Lowery had requested an emergency funding boost of $350,000 so that she could offer higher salaries to recruit and retain staff.
Public defense is almost entirely funded by local counties in Mississippi, but the state picks up the cost for district attorneys’ offices. That leads to stark pay disparities. In Hinds County, a first-year assistant prosecutor makes almost double the pay of a first-year public defender.
Turnover in the public defender’s office has been so high that Lowery warned supervisors earlier this year of a looming “constitutional crisis.” Her office is struggling to keep attorneys on staff to represent defendants in a court district that has among the highest volume of criminal cases in Mississippi. She said that of 14 attorney positions in her office, only half have been on the job for more than six months.
Lowery’s push for more funding has been supported by a coalition of local and national activists, civil rights organizations and legal aid groups, arraying themselves under the name Defend Mississippi.
Earlier this year, local attorney CJ Lawrence described Defend Mississippi as a “growing movement” of diverse perspectives, including “people who care about racial justice. People who care about civil liberties. People who care about the responsible use of tax payer dollars.”
Also in the news
Questionable conviction in Clay County. Tameshia Shelton is serving a life sentence for murder, despite a suicide note and other evidence that seems to contradict her conviction. The Mississippi Supreme Court will decide by July whether she gets a new trial. Mississippi Today
Alleged gang attacks in private jail. Two men said they were stabbed in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in May. Both are awaiting trial in Hinds County, which houses about 250 prisoners in the Tallahatchie facility run by CoreCivic. Mississippi Today
Sheriff’s office in turmoil. Six deputies resigned from the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office last month, after five signed an open letter voicing concerns about the administration. Sheriff Anthony Chancelor called the event “an attempted internal coup.” Two have since been reinstated. Mississippi Today
Jail administrators form organization to address challenges. The Mississippi Jail Administrators Association, led by Copiah County Jail Commander Charles Cunningham, will address challenges in running detention centers, including mental health care and staff retention. There is no formal oversight body for jails in the state. WLBT
Lawmaker announces run for district attorney. State Rep. Jansen Owen, a Republican, announced he will run for district attorney of the 15th Circuit Court District. The district includes Marion, Pearl River, Lamar and Walthall counties. Mississippi Free Press
Ex-Greenwood cop sentenced over drug conspiracy. Jamario Sanford will serve seven-and-a-half years in federal prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation in the Delta. He was one of several former officers and sheriffs arrested in an FBI sting last year. Mississippi Today
Recounting ICE detention. Israel and Max Makoka, the Hancock High School students taken by ICE in Diamondhead in April, told the story of their detention and separation. The brothers are from the Republic of the Congo and had been in Mississippi as exchange students for over two years. Mississippi Free Press
