Justice

State Needs Real Transparency

Mississippi, we have a problem. Governmental bodies and agencies from right here in Jackson (city, JPS and JPD) all the way up through state (secretary of state's office) have a really bad habit of trying to hide public information from you the taxpayer, or at least delaying it.

Jamie Scott Hospitalized

Less than three weeks after her release from prison, Jamie Scott has been hospitalized. Activist Nancy Lockhart, who worked for more than five years to free Jamie and her sister, Gladys, said in an e-mail press release that Jamie was admitted to the hospital in Pensacola, Fla., today for an "excessively high potassium level." Jamie Scott suffers from diabetes and has been diagnosed with renal failure. Her medical conditions, and the cost of caring for her, was one of Gov. Haley Barbour's justifications for ordering the suspension of her and Gladys' life sentences for a 1993 armed robbery.

[Kamikaze] Taking a Stand

I've always said if change were going to come in Jackson, it wouldn't come easy. I've known for years that some folks would have be dragged kicking and screaming into the new millennium. A "rebirth" isn't going to be pleasant. In fact, it's going to be painful for some.

History's Return

Gov. Haley Barbour is a sucker for anniversaries, apparently. In his final State of the State address last week, the governor said that 2011—the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War—was the year to make a proposed Mississippi Civil Rights Museum a reality.

Latinos and Loans

Mississippi could be headed for a courtroom showdown if the full state Legislature passes an anti-immigrant bill mirroring an Arizona law that forces law-enforcement to profile people they suspect to be undocumented residents.

Arizona-Style Immigration Bill Advances, In A Hurry

The Mississippi Senate passed a bill modeled after Arizona's anti-immigrant law SB 1070 today, despite protests by some Democrats that the measure was rife with errors carried over from the other state's law.

Cynthia Newhall

Cynthia Newhall was just a teenager when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968. On April 18, her 16th birthday, Newhall decided to dedicate her life to the struggle for equality.

[Balko] The Year in Clemency

It was a strange year for clemency, the often misunderstood and generally misused power that allows the president and governors to grant pardons (which overturn convictions) and commutations (which reduce sentences). The federal clemency power was meant to be a last check on injustices that might slip through the courts. But it is typically used for other purposes, mostly for political patronage or to confer a kind of government-sanctioned redemption on people who have atoned for their crimes.

Hezekiah Watkins

On a sunny day in the spring of 1961, Hezekiah Watkins was just another face in the crowd as he watched the Freedom Riders arrive at the Greyhound bus station on Lamar Street. Itching for a closer look, the 13-year-old sprinted across Lamar Street, but he accidentally ended up inside the station where police arrested the activists who rode interstate buses through the South to challenge Jim Crow laws.

Teaching The Truth

Next year, for the first time, Mississippi will require all social-studies teachers to teach the history of civil rights in the state. The requirement will come more than five years after state lawmakers initially approved the curriculum change.

Politicians: Tone Down the Rhetoric

The United States changed Saturday morning, Jan. 8, when an apparently mentally disturbed man took out his anti-government venom by trying to assassinate a U.S. congresswoman, and killing a little girl, a judge and other people's loved ones in the process.

Former Inmate: Youth Prison Was Hell

The Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility is failing to rehabilitate and is actually endangering the lives of its juvenile inmates, advocates and former inmates told state lawmakers today. Members of the House Juvenile Justice Committee heard a litany of complaints against the state-funded, privately operated prison, ranging from inadequate educational services to misconduct and physical abuse by prison staff.

Ellington