Mississippi

Did Exxon put La. alligators on Miss. oil waste site? Neighbor sues over claimed infestation

Did ExxonMobil put Louisiana alligators on a Mississippi oil waste disposal site to help monitor the cleanliness of the land? Or did wild gators native to Mississippi simply spot a comfortable home and move in? That question could be key to an upcoming ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court, which…

Mar 19, 2014 7:29 PM CDT

5th Circuit denies Miss. inmate’s habeas corpus petition citing controversial forensic pathologist

A federal appeals court has denied a Mississippi prisoner’s petition for a successive writ of habeas corpus. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Jan. 31 ruling (PDF), said inmate Tavares Flaggs hadn’t shown that the factual predicate of his proposed claims could not have been…

Mar 4, 2014 10:45 PM CST

Survey leads to multiple federal complaints of widespread discrimination against deaf renters

A yearlong national survey showed a “disturbing” amount of discrimination against deaf and hard-of-hearing would-be renters and led to the filing of nine federal fair-housing administrative complaints by advocacy groups and calls for better training of those who deal with individuals with hearing impairments. So-called matched-pair testing by the National…

Jan 27, 2014 7:40 PM CST

Only a handful of states allow conjugal prison visits; which one is dropping its program?

A rally is planned in Jackson, Miss., this Friday to protest plans to end conjugal visits in the state’s prisons. Prisoner commissioner Christopher Epps has said he plans to end the visits on Feb. 1 because of the cost and “the number of babies being born possibly as a result,”…

Jan 13, 2014 1:02 PM CST

Gay students are routinely bullied in one Miss. school district, suit alleges

Gay students in one Mississippi school district are subject to routine bullying, a lawsuit against the district alleges. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Gulfport, alleges that district officials have done little to remedy the situation, the Sun Herald reports. The case was filed on behalf of Destin…

Dec 18, 2013 7:35 PM CST

Baker & McKenzie wins damages retrial in driller’s $103M malpractice case

There was good news and bad news for Baker & McKenzie in a Mississippi Supreme Court opinion issued Thursday. The good news is that a new trial will be held on proximate cause and the $103 million in damages awarded in a legal malpractice and breach-of-contract case that contends the…

Oct 18, 2013 9:40 PM CDT

Should Mississippi AG’s suit against LCD makers be heard in state court? SCOTUS to decide

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Nov. 6 in a case filed by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood against the makers of LCD screens. Hood claims the companies engaged in price fixing, resulting in higher prices that are illegal under Mississippi consumer protection law. The issue is whether the…

Sep 18, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

Disbarred lawyer gets 40 years for embezzling $1.2M from child’s guardianship fund

A former Mississippi lawyer has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, after being found guilty Thursday of embezzling $1.2 million from the guardianship account of a minor child of a deceased civil rights leader. Michael J. Brown placed in the money in his own escrow…

Sep 5, 2013 4:20 PM CDT

Threat of ADA suit spurs officials to plan immediate renovation of courthouse elevators

After a threat by a disability rights group that it would bring suit if officials didn’t take action, immediate renovation is planned of the aging, malfunctioning elevators in Mississippi’s Hinds County Courthouse. In addition to problems with breakdowns, sometimes between floors, slow travel times and doors that sometimes shut on…

Jun 4, 2013 7:50 PM CDT

Rats are so plentiful at Mississippi prison that inmates put them on leashes, suit says

A Mississippi prison for mentally ill inmates is so infested with rats that some prisoners put them on makeshift leashes and sell them as pets, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday. The suit (PDF) says the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian is “an extremely dangerous facility operating in…

Jun 3, 2013 11:04 AM CDT

Execution is stayed for Miss. inmate in case raising questions about hair and DNA evidence

Updated: The Mississippi Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for Willie Jerome Manning, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection this evening for the murders of two college students. The court said the execution should be delayed until it rules further, the Associated Press reports. Last week…

May 7, 2013 7:20 PM CDT

‘Scared to death’ of snakes, clerk is not happy to discover them in courthouse filing system

No matter how tight the security system is at a courthouse, it can be tough to keep out a snake. That’s something Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn and her employees know from personal experience—they have found five snakes in their office in the basement of the Hinds County, Miss., courthouse during…

Apr 25, 2013 6:52 PM CDT

Elvis impersonator dismissed from ricin case over letters to Obama, lawmaker and judge

All charges were dropped Tuesday in a federal case over suspected ricin-laced letters reportedly sent to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator from Mississippi and a state-court judge. As the day began, a preliminary hearing against defendant Paul Kevin Curtis was continuing. Then he was released from custody and the…

Apr 23, 2013 10:42 PM CDT

With billions at issue, trial begins to apportion fault for oil spill among BP, its subcontractors

A federal judge in New Orleans began hearing opening statements Monday in a trial to determine how to apportion blame between BP Plc and its subcontractors for the massive oil spill that began April 20, 2010 with a blowout of an undersea well after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded…

Feb 25, 2013 6:16 PM CST

Top La. Court Nixes Lawyer’s Argument That Judicial Bribery Scheme Doesn’t Call for Disbarment

A suspended Louisiana trial lawyer has been permanently disbarred for his role in a Mississippi judicial bribery scheme. Rejecting arguments by Paul S. Minor that attorney discipline should not take place until his criminal appeals are final and that disbarment is too harsh a punishment, given the mitigating circumstances, the…

Oct 19, 2012 10:00 PM CDT