Mississippi

Mississippi institutes rule requiring more schooling after 3 bar exam failures

The state supreme court granted a petition from the Mississippi Board of Bar Examiners that requires 12 additional semester hours of law school before making a fourth attempt on the test.

Jun 3, 2019 12:19 PM CDT

2 US law firms lost over $117K to international cybercrime network, indictment alleges

A law firm in Washington, D.C., and a law office in Wellesley, Massachusetts, are among the victims of malware attacks by an overseas cybercrime network.

May 17, 2019 11:13 AM CDT

Lawyer held in contempt for spending $390K in frozen funds spends 2 weekends per month in jail

A lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi, continues to spend two weekends per month in jail for contempt of court after he failed to persuade a judge to switch him to home confinement. Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III denied the motion by lawyer Eduardo Flechas in February, the Mississippi…

Apr 18, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Federal judge compares Trump’s attacks on judiciary to KKK tactics

In a speech last week at his law school alma mater, a Mississippi federal judge compared President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary to tactics used by segregationists and lawyers for the Ku Klux Klan.

Apr 15, 2019 9:34 AM CDT

5th Circuit judge raises eyebrows with ‘majority-minority panel’ reference in gerrymandering case

A dissent by Circuit Judge Edith Brown Clement in a Mississippi gerrymandering case is raising some questions and eyebrows. What, exactly, did the federal appeals judge mean when she wrote that the state defendants “have simply had the poor luck of drawing a majority-minority panel”? Mother Jones initially surmised that…

Mar 27, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

Conflict questions raised about prosecutors’ vote to join police union

Assistant prosecutors and investigators in St. Louis County have voted to join the police union in advance of a reform-minded leader taking the helm. The Monday vote is raising questions about possible conflicts of interest, report the Associated Press and the St. Louis American. Columnists for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch…

Dec 21, 2018 11:28 AM CST

Judge rules sheriff violated rights of woman held in jail for three months without seeing judge

A federal judge in Mississippi has ruled that a Mississippi county and its sheriff violated the constitutional rights of a woman held in jail for three months without seeing a judge. In a brief order on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock found liability on Jessica Jauch’s 14th Amendment claim,…

Nov 30, 2018 12:10 PM CST

Dark tale of ‘The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist’ brings false convictions to light (podcast)

For nearly two decades, Dr. Steven Hayne and Dr. Michael West were the go-to experts who Mississippi law enforcement and prosecutors relied on when there was a potential homicide. Hayne performed the bulk of the autopsies in the state, while West was a dentist who touted his skill in bite-mark analysis and his pioneering use of UV light on human skin to detect trace markings he claimed he could match to objects. But after years of investigations and countless testimonies from the men, their claims of expertise began to fall apart—and wrongful convictions began coming to light.

Mar 7, 2018 8:05 AM CST

Supreme Court won’t hear lawyer’s equal-protection challenge to Mississippi flag

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by a black Mississippi lawyer who claimed the Confederate battle emblem on the state’s flag violated his constitutional right to equal protection. The lawyer, Carlos Moore, had argued the flag endorses white supremacy, report the Courthouse News Service, NPR…

Nov 28, 2017 11:17 AM CST

Judge is accused of barring mother from seeing her child for 14 months over fee nonpayment

A Mississippi judge has resigned after he was accused of barring a mother from seeing her child until she paid court fees, keeping the 4-month-old child from the mother for the next 14 months.

Oct 27, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Ex-con and Yale Law grad must prove ‘good moral character’ before being able to practice

A former convict who has graduated from Yale Law School and is an acclaimed author and poet now must prove his “good moral character” to Connecticut officials before he can practice law, The Associated Press reports. Reginald Dwayne Betts, 36, passed the state bar exam in February but now must,…

Aug 9, 2017 9:51 AM CDT

Lawsuit alleges Mississippi deprives black children of equal educational opportunities

The Southern Poverty Law Center has sued the state of Mississippi, alleging it’s systematically failing to fund schools in majority-black areas, The Associated Press and the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Four mothers of children in elementary schools are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit that turns on an 1870 law…

May 23, 2017 4:41 PM CDT

How a Chinese-American family challenged school segregation in 1920s Mississippi (podcast)

Almost 30 years before Linda Brown and her parents took on the Topeka Board of Education in Brown v. Board of Education, Martha Lum’s parents Jeu Gong and Katherine sued to try to stop Rosedale, Mississippi, from barring their Chinese-American children from the local “white” school. Their case, Gong Lum…

May 17, 2017 8:41 AM CDT

Lawyer who says he was stigmatized by Mississippi flag has no standing to sue, 5th Circuit says

A black Mississippi lawyer who said he was stigmatized by the state flag’s incorporation of the Confederate flag has no standing to sue, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans ruled against lawyer Carlos Moore in a March 31 opinion (PDF),…

Apr 4, 2017 2:04 PM CDT

‘Dreamer’ immigrant released after arrest that followed speech at press conference

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released a young woman who was arrested by ICE agents directly after speaking at a press conference about her fear of deportation, Mississippi Today reports. Daniela Vargas, 22, is a “dreamer”—a young person brought without authorization to the United States as a child. Her…

Mar 14, 2017 7:45 AM CDT