Ellington

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens was impressed with Dunn Lampton's drive and intelligence when he hired him to work as his assistant district attorney for Mississippi's 14 Judicial District in 1976, although he was fresh out of Ole Miss law school and had little trial experience.

In 1981, when Kitchens started his own private law practice, Lampton won a special election to serve as district attorney and stayed in the position for 20 years. Despite the fact that the two attorneys frequently argued cases against each other, the men remained life-long friends.

"We didn't always agree with each other, but we were always friends," Kitchens told the Jackson Free Press today. "... He had a winning personality. He was a resourceful thinker with ideas that were different from how I thought."

Lampton, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2001 to 2009, died last night at the age of 60. Lampton had battled health problems for several years and suffered a spinal cord injury from a car accident in 2007. He prosecuted the civil-rights case that led to the conviction of reputed Klansmen James Ford Seale.

Seale was convicted in 2007 on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the death of two 19-year-old black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. In 2005, The Jackson Free Press accompanied Moore's brother, Thomas, and a cameraman from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in 2005 back to Meadville and Roxie, Miss., where the team discovered that Seale was still alive and living openly next to his brother in a trailer in Roxie. Other media, including the Associated Press and The Clarion-Ledger, had reported him dead. On Aug. 13, Seale died in prison at age 76.

Lampton work with Thomas Moore in reopening the case. The two men had served in the same U.S. Army unit, the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry, when they were training to go to the Persian Gulf.

"He respected my rank as a command sergeant major," Thomas Moore told the Jackson Free Press in 2005. "He knows the authority and power my commission invested in me. It's kind of like old soldiers taking care of each other. He's a fine gentleman."

Lampton also prosecuted lawyer Paul Minor and two former Gulf Coast judges, John Whitfield and Walter "Wes" Teel, for corruption charges.

The JFP reported in April that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that Lampton could be tried for allegedly disclosing confidential financial documents of former Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Oliver E. Diaz to the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance. Lampton had originally subpoenaed the documents for his failed prosecution of Diaz for bribery charges in 2005. Diaz and his wife sued Lampton in federal court in 2009 for illegally releasing the sealed documents.

Diaz said today that despite Lampton's death, the case would still move forward.

"We will be looking at everything and evaluating it," Diaz said. "Our position is that he is only one witness to the case."

U.S. Attorney John Dowdy released the following statement today.

"Dunn is going to be missed. Having known Dunn for twenty years, I considered him not only a colleague but a good friend. He was the epitome of a career prosecutor. Dunn will be remembered for his tireless and unwavering pursuit of justice as a prosecutor. Dunn loved his family and he loved the law. He lived each day of his life trying to do what was right. His integrity was beyond reproach and he served the people of Mississippi with great honor."

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