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.
This month, we highlight the latest reporting from The Marshall Project - Jackson, probing no-knock search warrants and a federal takeover of the Hinds County jail. There have also been new court developments involving a 2022 Capitol Police shooting.
- Caleb Bedillion and Daja E. Henry
Some Mississippi no-knock search warrants lack written justification
After much scrutiny over the use of no-knock searches, local officials in northeast Mississippi’s Monroe County finally stopped using boilerplate requests for no-knock warrants several years ago.
Why the change? And what should judges look for when police request a no-knock search warrant?
The Marshall Project - Jackson’s latest investigation looks at just those questions.
Almost 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court put specific limits on no-knock searches. The court said law enforcement officers can barge into someone’s home without knocking only if they have a “reasonable suspicion” based on specific facts that a suspect might pose a threat, attempt to destroy evidence or potentially flee.
But when The Marshall Project - Jackson and the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal looked back 10 years, we found 62 no-knock search warrants from six courts across Mississippi that legal experts said lacked a legally sufficient and written justification.
The courts where our investigation found questionable no-knock search warrants included Monroe County, where sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a man during a drug raid in 2015. A lawsuit followed and lasted years before settling for $690,000. The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing by the county or law enforcement.
Before each side agreed to a settlement, two federal courts ruled that deputies and local officials failed to prove the no-knock raid was legally justified.
But despite this scrutiny in federal court over the deadly raid, our investigation found that, for years, some local judges in the Monroe County Justice Court continued signing no-knock search warrants that experts said were similarly flawed.
Judges in Mississippi can take sworn oral testimony into account, and they don’t have to record that testimony or write it down. One Monroe County judge, Brandon Davis, said he does just that.
But legal experts and a former judge said that’s bad practice and contributes to a broader lack of judicial accountability around no-knock search warrants that exists across the country.
Read the entire story to learn about this issue, including how the nation’s highest court undermined its own decision declaring no-knock searches an exception, not the rule.
What will happen to Hinds County’s jail under federal control?
Hinds County’s Raymond Detention Center will soon be under federal control. The jail has been plagued with issues since the day it opened in 1994, when the cell door locks malfunctioned, forcing incarcerated people to be held in the booking area. Cell doors still do not lock, according to court documents.
An investigation released in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Justice found the county violated the constitutional rights of people in custody by failing to protect them from harm and holding people in the jail beyond their court-ordered release dates. The investigation cited rampant violence, poor staffing and a steady flow of contraband.
In 2016, the jail was placed under a consent decree, an agreement between the county and federal government that details how to fix the problem. But the federal judge overseeing the agreement has twice declared that the county was not holding up its end of the bargain, and found it in contempt of court.
The judge made a rare move, ordering the jail to be placed under a receiver. This has only happened about a dozen times to U.S. prisons and jails. The receiver is a neutral party appointed by the court and tasked with getting the jail into compliance.
The Marshall Project - Jackson’s Daja E. Henry spoke with Hernandez D. Stroud, an expert on correctional oversight and a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, about what could happen next for the jail. Stroud has written extensively about receiverships and the federal government’s power to intervene in local criminal justice institutions.
Read our interview with Stroud here.
Jackson mayoral race headed to Democratic primary runoff
Jackson voters narrowed a crowded mayoral race Tuesday, likely sending incumbent Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Mississippi state Sen. John Horhn to a runoff in the Democratic primary on April 22. The winner will face Republican and independent challengers in the general election on June 3.
As of Tuesday night, Horhn led the field of 12 candidates with 48% of the vote, and Lumumba followed with 17%. Mail-in absentee and affidavit ballots remained to be counted.
The runoff would be a rematch for the two candidates. Lumumba defeated Horhn in the 2017 Democratic primary with 55% of the vote, and is now seeking a third term.
Lumumba’s win comes months after he was indicted on federal bribery charges. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Horhn has represented District 26, which includes part of Jackson, since 1993. This is his fourth mayoral bid, and his third time facing Lumumba in a crowded field.
Though statistics presented by the Jackson Police Department point to a decrease in violent crime, public safety remained a hot-button issue throughout this year’s mayoral race. Both candidates signaled that they would be tough on crime and support the police department.
“I am no friend of crime,” Lumumba repeated throughout his campaign. He touted salary raises for Jackson Police Department officers, investments in body cameras, and a new fleet of police cars. Outside of policing, he pointed to his administration’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, which works with community organizations to address socioeconomic factors contributing to violent crime.
Throughout his campaign, Horhn said he would “address crime with a firm, but just hand.” He cited the need for more funding for JPD and planned to go after federal and state resources.
In the 2014 legislative session, he introduced the Capital City Crime Prevention Program, which called for an assessment of public safety and investment in the court system. Though the bill died, it prompted a study on crime in Jackson.
Both candidates have experienced crime in the city. Lumumba’s older brother was shot in Jackson. Horhn said he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013.
They have also had experiences on the opposite side of the courts. In 2013, Horhn, after hosting a summit to address crime, was charged with a DUI. He pleaded no contest.
Plea deal and dropped charges for man charged with shooting at Capitol police
Sinatra Jordan spent two-and-a-half years in the Hinds County jail, facing charges that he shot at two Capitol Police officers during a car chase.
But now, he’s free, and the tables have turned.
Jordan had been in jail since August 2022, when he was arrested following the alleged car chase.
But in January, Capitol Police officers Michael Rhinewalt and Jeffery Alan Walker were themselves charged by the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch for shooting at Jordan and a passenger in the car, Sherita Harris.
Last month, Jordan reached a plea deal in the Hinds County Circuit Court that saw the charges of shooting at the officers dropped. Jordan instead pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving stolen property, which pre-dated the 2022 shooting incident, and to a misdemeanor charge of failing to stop for officers. He was sentenced to time served and two-and-a-half years of probation.
He was released the same day the plea was entered.
Rhinewalt and Walker have pleaded not guilty. They contend they were defending themselves when they fired their weapons. Walker is also facing federal charges for allegedly beating a handcuffed man in 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.
In a twist, Rhinewalt and Walker have asked Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten to throw out the charges against them, arguing that the Attorney General’s Office — which is prosecuting the two men — was until recently defending them in a civil suit over the 2022 shooting.
State law gives the Attorney General’s Office sole power to prosecute law enforcement officers involved in shootings.
Also in the news
State auditor to investigate Rankin County Sheriff’s Office. An investigation by Mississippi Today detailed Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey’s alleged use of incarcerated people and county resources to staff and maintain his mother’s commercial chicken farm. A spokesperson for state auditor Shad White’s office said he has begun an investigation. Mississippi Today
Immigration enforcement ramps up. Attorney General Lynn Fitch has joined a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that gives her authority to enforce some federal immigration law, such as initiating removal proceedings for immigrants in jail. This comes amid an operation in Rankin County that arrested 25 undocumented immigrants in March. Mississippi Today
Two arrested in Jackson mass shooting. Capitol Police arrested two people, including a former University of Mississippi Medical Center police officer, in connection with the March 22 shooting following the annual Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade and Festival in Jackson that left one dead and seven injured. WAPT
Mississippi senator calls for Signal investigation. Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked the acting inspector general for an investigation into national security officials’ usage of the commercial messaging platform Signal to discuss military strikes. The decision comes after The Atlantic reported its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been inadvertently added to a group chat discussing a strike in Yemen. A federal judge ordered the Signal messages be preserved, following a lawsuit by a watchdog group. AP
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