An attorney for Mississippi on Wednesday told the Fifth Circuit that the crux of a voter redistricting case comes down to whether black voters in a given district have a lesser chance of electing the candidates of their choice than the nonblack minority in the district.
Read moreA man was properly sentenced to 12 years in custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for possessing a cell phone in a jail where he was being held on a misdemeanor charge, the state’s supreme court ruled. The man claims his sentence is “grossly disproportionate” to the crime but it falls within the statutory range of three to 15 years.
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Burglary is not supposed to be punishable by death. Nor is burglary, armed robbery, selling cocaine or stealing a vehicle. But that is what the mothers of three inmates say was given to their sons, all of whom were killed in prison violence last week in Mississippi.
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Senate Democrats on Wednesday grilled a former Republican Mississippi state lawmaker now up for a federal judgeship on his political past, including his support for overturning the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion decision and his record on issues from guns to voting rights.
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The leader of Mississippi’s underfunded prison system was pleading with lawmakers for money to hire more guards and pay them better in 2012 when he warned, “I see trouble down the road.”
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Mississippi authorities were searching for two prisoners believed to have escaped Saturday from one of several prisons rocked by violence that left at least five inmates dead in the past week.
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Mississippi cannot enforce a law barring abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday in a major setback to efforts by conservative-leaning states challenging abortion rights.
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The Fifth Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in a challenge to a Mississippi law that permanently blocks certain felons from voting unless they can get their rights restored through a process their attorney says is basically nonexistent.
Read moreA Mississippi district attorney who prosecuted a black man six times for the same crime is facing a class action lawsuit that claims he has carried out a 27-year-old pattern of racial discrimination in the jury selection process by excluding black citizens from serving as jurors.
Read moreDemocrat Mike Espy on Tuesday announced his run for the Mississippi Senate seat he sought in a tight special election last year, setting up a potential 2020 rematch with Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was dogged by controversy for a remark expressing a willingness to attend a public hanging.
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With the support of President Donald Trump, Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves was elected governor Tuesday night, defeating Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood in a race that secures the state’s status as a Republican stronghold ahead of the 2020 presidential contest.
Read moreThe Fifth Circuit heard arguments Monday over a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, as the three-judge panel was asked to overturn an order striking down the law.
Read moreA federal court in Mississippi dismissed a school bus driver’s employment retaliation and due process suit against her former employer. The former driver claimed she was constructively terminated after she complained about harassment, including an incident in which a co-worker allegedly tried to run her over with a bus.
Read moreThe future of President Donald Trump’s choice for a seat on the Fifth Circuit is uncertain after multiple Republicans have spoken out against his nomination.
Read moreJackson, Mississippi, sued the Jackson Zoological Society and its directors, claiming the zoo owes it $6 million for water, and seeking an order prohibiting the zoo, from removing any personal property or animals from the zoo, in Hinds County Court.
Read moreA federal judge in Mississippi ruled that “the United States has met its burden and shown that despite the State’s episodic improvement, it operates a [mental health] system that unlawfully discriminates against persons with serious mental illness.”
Read moreThe Fifth Circuit affirmed that Mississippi gerrymandered its State Senate District 22 to deny black citizens equal rights, in violation of the Voting Rights Act, and noted that the state “scarcely entered any evidence to the contrary.”
Read moreCatholic sex abuse survivors in Mississippi and Wisconsin on Thursday demanded that federal authorities investigate allegations from three black Mississippi men who say they were molested by Franciscan friars during the mid-1990s, when they were as young as 9 years old.
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Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will be the Republican nominee for governor in November, after soundly defeating former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. on Tuesday. He will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood.
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