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In this edition, a preview of the special election for Hinds County’s district attorney, the first trial of Capitol Police officers since their record year of police violence in 2022, and another challenge to the controversial “shaken baby syndrome” diagnosis.
— Daja E. Henry and Caleb Bedillion
District attorney candidates pledge to address jail crowding, crime and public trust
A special election to select Hinds County’s top criminal prosecutor is less than a month away.
Five candidates will be on the Nov. 3 ballot. The winner will replace a scandal-plagued prosecutor who resigned this summer, leaving a little more than a year to serve on his term.
The new district attorney will take office at a time when the justice system in Mississippi’s capital city is facing enormous challenges. The county’s jail is currently under the supervision of a court-appointed monitor, but overcrowding and violence continue there. The interim district attorney, who is not running in the special election, has acknowledged that the prosecutor’s office needs to move cases faster and could likely identify nonviolent detainees to release in cooperation with the public defender’s office.
Additionally, a newly opened audit is probing the office, and questions are mounting about how former DA Jody Owens handled finances during his tenure. Owens is awaiting sentencing on a federal conspiracy charge involving an alleged bribery scheme.
Candidates are broadly pledging attention to this litany of issues, according to reporting by Mississippi Today.
“There is absolutely no excuse for the level of pretrial detainees in Raymond,” said Greta Mack Harris, a former Hinds County assistant district attorney, at a forum last month.
At the same forum, Gwen Agho, currently an assistant district attorney in Hinds County, but on leave to campaign, described the grand jury process as slow and chaotic.
However, another Hinds County assistant prosecutor, Wendy Wilson White, said law enforcement often has much to do with the backlog of cases.
“The DA’s office has no real control over the speed of investigations,” she said.
Marvin Sanders, a defense attorney who worked in the prosecutor’s office years ago and was a former assistant attorney general, is also in the running. He told the forum audience he wouldn’t commit any crimes in office because “I like my freedom.”
Darla Palmer, a local attorney, is also running and spoke briefly at the forum. She emphasized the need to combat violent crime.
The winner of the special election will serve a little over a year, the remaining time on the current term, and will have to run again in county elections next year to keep the position.
Capitol Police officer acquitted in fatal 2022 shooting
Two Capitol Police officers who fatally shot 25-year-old Jaylen Lewis in 2022 will walk free.
A jury acquitted Steven Frederick Jr. and failed to reach a verdict for Michael Rhinewalt on manslaughter charges. The attorney general’s office will not pursue a new trial against Rhinewalt, who fired the fatal shot.
In the case of a tie, “the benefit of the doubt goes to our law enforcement officers,” Attorney General Lynn Fitch wrote in a statement.
Rhinewalt and Frederick opened fire after they attempted to stop Lewis’ Jeep Grand Cherokee. A passenger in Lewis’ car testified that Lewis didn’t know the officers were attempting to conduct a traffic stop, as they were driving an unmarked car and wearing plain clothes. Lewis did not stop his car. The officers both testified that they fired their weapons in self-defense, as they believed he was trying to run them over.
Shootings by the Capitol Police increased sharply in 2022, as controversial legislation expanded their jurisdiction to cover more of Jackson. That year, there were four shootings by Capitol Police officers, more than any other agency in the state.
Rhinewalt is set to stand trial for another on-duty shooting from 2022. He is charged with aggravated assault for the shooting of Sherita Harris. Harris lived, but is facing permanent neurological damage, according to a lawsuit filed on her behalf.
Man on death row given chance to appeal
The Mississippi Supreme Court will allow Devin Bennett, a man on death row who was convicted of the murder of his 2-month-old son in 2003, to file an appeal based on newly discovered evidence.
Bennett’s appeal hinges on the validity of “shaken baby syndrome” — now called abusive head trauma — a medical diagnosis that has been called into question in several ongoing capital cases. In court documents, Bennett said his son was injured in a fall from his car seat. Bennett took the baby to the hospital, but he died. Medical experts testified that the baby’s injuries were consistent with so-called shaken baby syndrome.
In a letter to the court, Bennett’s lawyer cited a recent case that resulted in an overturned murder conviction last month in California. Like Bennett, Jason Harley Moore was convicted of killing his baby using a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Moore’s conviction was overturned after the court determined medical testimony in his trial has since been “undermined by scientific developments.”
The court voted unanimously to allow Bennett to file a successive motion for post-conviction relief, determining that the new evidence warranted an exception to the time limits typically placed on these types of appeals.
Also in the news
President Donald Trump nominates Jackson lawyer for 5th Circuit Court vacancy. The president announced he plans to nominate Todd Butler, an attorney at Phelps Dunbar, for the federal appeals court. Butler previously clerked for Judge Leslie Southwick, who held the seat before taking senior status on the federal appeals court. Mississippi Today
Tasia Fortune was killed before being hanged, JPD says. A detective with the Jackson Police Department testified that the 29-year-old mother of four was killed in a drug dispute before her body was found hanging from a tree in August. Three men have been arrested and charged with her death. The Associated Press
Grand jury declines to indict in Nolan Wells’ death. Wells’ family is left with questions after a grand jury returned a “no true bill,” meaning there is not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges in the 18-year-old’s death. Wells was found dead in July after going on a boating trip with friends on Horn Island. A state autopsy ruled the cause and manner of his death as undetermined. MPB
Man left unable to walk after beating in Raymond Detention Center, lawsuit says. Deonte Shaw, 31, was attacked in his cell, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. Guards discovered him the next morning and, hours later, sent him to the infirmary, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf. He is one of many people who have sued the county in federal court over the jail’s unconstitutional conditions. It is currently under the control of a federal receiver. Mississippi Today
