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JXN Water confirmed to station WLBT this week that it shut off drinking water for an apartment complex in the city that was late on paying its bills, but declined to tell Mississippi Today how many total accounts have been suspended so far.

The third-party utility, which was established in 2022 through a federal court order, said it began shutting off water connections for not paying water bills in March. But when asked if it had a number of how many accounts or connections were shut off for overdue bills, JXN Water declined to say.

“No, as in we are not releasing that number,” Aisha Carson, a media spokesperson for JXN Water, told Mississippi Today on Thursday. “We’re not talking about it publicly.”

The complex that JXN Water did comment on was The Gardenside Apartments, a property just west of State Street on Northside Drive. Management with the complex didn’t respond to a request for comment, but an advertisement on Apartments.com says Gardenside contains 144 units with rent for one-bedroom apartments starting at $749.

The advertisement also reads: “Water, Sewer and Trash included!”

The complex’s website listed just two vacancies as of Thursday afternoon.

JXN Water told WLBT that it made “repeated attempts” to collect on Gardenside’s past due bills. The TV station reported that complex owes $149,000 and has not made a payment since 2017.

“That company that owns (Gardenside) owns more than one apartment complex in Jackson,” Carson said. “None of their accounts are current, and they have not been responsive to our requests at all.”

The registered agent for Gardenside on the state’s business registry database is Moshe Weber. The address listed for Weber in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website matches one listed for a New York Life insurance agent with the same name in Brooklyn, New York. Weber did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In April, JXN Water told WLBT that five apartment complexes, not including Gardenside, owed over $1.8 million in water bills. All five were owned by out-of-state companies.

Carson wouldn’t specify what other complexes are at risk of having their water shut off, but said some have reached out to JXN Water to work out payment plans since the April news.

“We are actively enforcing our severance process for apartment complexes that are more than 90 days behind (on their water bill),” she said.

In a Wednesday press release, JXN Water said it will send a property manager multiple notices before beginning the severance process. The utility also encouraged tenants in Jackson apartment complexes to ask their property management companies whether their accounts with JXN Water are current.

If you live in Jackson and have had your water shutoff due to your apartment complex not paying its bill or for any other reasons, reach out to us at info@mississippitoday.org.

The post After first publicized shutoff, JXN Water won’t say how many others have happened appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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As of Friday, five of the six locations where Mississippi’s prisons are located are under a National Weather Service heat advisory.

And the Mississippi Department of Corrections has no clear timeline as to when it will install air conditioning to bring relief to inmates and staff.

“We are continuing to explore our options to provide air conditioning where possible; however, there is no timetable for that installation at this time,” MDOC spokesperson Kate Head wrote in an email. 

One woman incarcerated at the women’s prison at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl said relief from the heat is hard to come by and the temperatures inside are worse than outside without any shade or trees. The woman asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. 

“It’s actually worse (in) here,” she said Tuesday. “The heat just hits you in the face.” 

The heat index, also known as what temperature feels like on the body, takes into account humidity and air temperature. Friday’s advisory was said to expect index temperatures up to 110.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who are at an increased risk of heat-related illnesses include those without access to air conditioning, those over the age of 65 and people with chronic conditions – populations that include incarcerated people. 

Last year was the incarcerated woman’s first summer at the prison, and she witnessed people pass out or experience seizures because of the heat. 

Head, the MDOC spokesperson, wrote in an email that the department is taking steps to mitigate the heat by providing incarcerated people with water, ice and fans. 

This is similar to what has been done in previous years, but some incarcerated people have said that distribution of ice isn’t always regular or enough to support hundreds of people and that fans move hot air around. MDOC did not respond to these concerns Friday. 

Air conditioning installation has been completed at the women’s prison at CMCF in the church, school and dining areas, the incarcerated woman said. Several weeks ago it was completed in her housing zone, she said, but the AC there has not been turned on. 

Tuesday evening, the prison superintendent visited the building where the incarcerated woman lives and told residents the air conditioning would not be turned on for the foreseeable future because it requires a part that is on backorder, the woman said. 

The woman has also seen how three emotional support dogs trained by seminary students are moved to air conditioned areas and provided pools of water to stay cool. She doesn’t understand how the animals get access to the relief but she and the other women don’t. 

“We get the short end of the stick on everything,” she said, in reference to how the men at CMCF already have AC and the dogs in the women’s prison get access to it. 

MDOC did not respond to questions about the air conditioning and the dogs’ access to it.  

Last year as air conditioning was installed at three-fourths of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Commissioner Burl Cain estimated that by sometime in 2025, AC would be coming Parchman’s Unit 29, South Mississippi Correctional Institute in Leakesville and other facilities, so long as funding was available to support those upgrades. 

“It just takes a good while to get it all done,” he said in an April 2023 interview with Missisisppi Today. “That’s just the way the funding is.” 

At Parchman, the heat index was above 130 degrees –  within the extreme danger category where a person’s risk of heat-related illness is likely – for 25 of the past 72 hours, according to the National Weather Service records. 

On four separate instances Wednesday afternoon, the heat index reached 185 at Parchman, according to weather data. 

Pictures from Parchman’s Unit 29, which doesn’t have air conditioning, shows how men have secured 8-inch fans purchased from the commissary to the bars of their cells and placed their mattress on the floor beneath the fan, which some have told advocates is how they get relief from the heat. 

The majority of Parchman has had air conditioning since last summer, but Unit 29 is part of the group of prisons that are expected to get AC sometime in the future. 

At all prisons, an 8-inch fan is available to buy from the commissary for $29.95, which is among one of the most expensive on the prison’s commissary list compiled by The Appeal. 

Even if an incarcerated person has a job, Mississippi prison industry jobs can pay between 20 cents and $1.30 an hour, which falls within an estimated national average calculated by the Prison Policy Initiative. The group also estimated regular prison jobs nationwide have an estimated range of 14 cents and 63 cents an hour. 

Privately operated Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility has AC including in its housing units, but family members told advocates that since the end of May, the air conditioning has not been functional. 

The maximum daily temperatures in Meridian, where the prison is located, have been above 90 degrees since the end of May, according to the National Weather Service. 

Meridian is also under a heat advisory, and within the past three days, the highest heat index was 107 degrees – 95 degrees at 75% humidity, which is in the danger category for heat-related illnesses. 

Management and Training Corp. spokesperson Emily Lawhead said technicians have diagnosed problems with air conditioning units and will install new units when they arrive. 

“We’re working hard to get all AC units back online as soon as possible,” she wrote in an email. 

In the meantime, Lawson said cold water and fans are available, and Gatorade is provided to staff and incarcerated people for them to stay hydrated. Swamp coolers are cooling the air in areas where AC units are waiting to be repaired, she said Friday. 

Heat in prison is a national issue that Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which represents incarcerated people and their families, and One Voice United, a group representing corrections staff, have teamed up to address. 

The Safer Prisons, Safer Communities campaign is highlighting a nationwide crisis through overcrowding, understaffing and deteriorating conditions that make prisons unconducive to rehabilitation and create poor conditions for incarcerated people, prison staff, families and communities. 

Andy Potter, executive director of One Voice United and a former Michigan corrections officer, recognizes prison infrastructure can be old and it can be expensive to install air conditioning.

But he said it’s not enough for incarcerated people and the corrections staff to rely on fans, water bottles and Gatorade to stay cool. The incarcerated and staff do not have the freedom or ability to seek relief in a similar way as those not in a prison system can do, Potter said. 

Daniel Landsman, vice president of policy for FAMM, said air conditioning can help decrease incidents of violence and fatalities, which research has found increases with heat. 

“Heat is just going to make all the things we are experiencing in our prison system worse,” he said. 

The post As heat rises, inmates and staff swelter in Mississippi’s prisons appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge in Mississippi has blocked enactment of a Biden administration rule designed to prevent medical care from being denied to those seeking treatment related to gender identity or sexual orientation.

The lawsuit U.S. Southern District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled on Wednesday was filed by 15 states, including Mississippi. But he said his injunction preventing the Biden administration from enforcing its rule would apply nationwide. His ruling is likely to be appealed.

On social media, the Human Rights Campaign proclaimed, “This is not over. All LGBTQ+ people should receive the health care we deserve and be able to make informed decisions about our own bodies.”

The Biden administration rule enacted earlier this year is designed to ensure those seeking medical care on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation are not subject to discrimination. The rule is supposed to cover entities receiving federal funds for the delivery of health care.

The states argued against being forced to provide gender-affirming care through Medicaid programs or through health plans for state employees. In addition, the states argued against private insurance companies being required to provide such care.

“Injecting gender identity into our state’s medical system is a dangerous pursuit of a political agenda from the Biden Administration,” Mississippi Attorney Lynn Fitch said in a statement. “Medical professionals should not be forced to provide gender transition surgeries or drugs against their judgment and hospitals should not be prohibited from providing women-only spaces for patients. I am proud to lead the multistate effort with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to stop the Biden Administration and push back on this reckless rule.”

The lawsuit is one of many filed by attorneys general and others objecting to the Biden administration interpreting Title IX to apply to banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and sexual identity. Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed into law, Title IX in 1972 to ban sexual discrimination.

In response to one of the similar lawsuits ruled on earlier in Louisiana, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “Every student … deserves to be safe. Every young person deserves protection from bullying, misgendering and abuse.”

Robinson added, referring to the earlier court ruling, “This is MAGA theatrics with the dangerous goal of weaving discrimination into state law.”

Mississippi has passed a state law prohibiting minors from receiving gender-affirming care even if it is recommended by physicians.

On social media, Gov. Tate Reeves said, “The Biden Administration attempted to undermine Title IX by dramatically reinterpreting its meaning to now apply to gender identity. Thankfully, a federal court judge has sided with Mississippi and other states who chose to stand up for women and defend Title IX as it currently exists.”

The lawsuit filed by Fitch and other attorneys general argued that their states could be penalized by the loss of federal Medicaid funds, for example, if they did not adhere to the rule.

In blocking the rule. Guirola cited the Chevron case where the U.S. Supreme Court recently said that federal agencies should not be given deference in their rules-making.

The post Mississippi judge blocks Biden attempt to ensure LGBTQ+ medical treatment appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The leaders of the Mississippi’s two major political parties recently offered two opposing plans for how much they plan to interact with candidates competing for one the state’s three contested races for the state Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court. 

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst told Mississippi Today on the June 24 edition of Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that the GOP will likely endorse certain candidates in the race, while Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor said on the July 1 episode of the podcast that judicial endorsements are not on the party’s radar. 

Judicial elections tend to be low-interest races, but the elections this year will take place on the same ballot as the presidential and congressional elections. If a major political party endorses a candidate, it could give them more name recognition at the ballot box.

“I know it’s a nonpartisan race, and I think there should be a clear dividing line between the campaigns for nonpartisan races and the partisan entities like the Republican Party,” Hurst said. “But at the same time, we all know that there are differences that judicial candidates hold in their opinions on how to interpret the constitution and how to interpret statutes.” 

Candidates for the Mississippi Court of Appeals and the Mississippi Supreme Court are required to run as nonpartisan, meaning they do not run in a party primary. However, political parties can still endorse candidates running for those offices. 

For a few years, state law banned parties from endorsing or donating money to nonpartisan judicial candidates. But the state GOP in 2002 filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate struck down the ban as unconstitutional, saying it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. 

Taylor, who just won election to a full term as Democratic Party chairman, said the party is still in a “rebuilding phase” and has to carefully decide which races it should get involved with. 

“There are so many races to get involved in and so many ways that funding is limited,” Taylor said. “We are structuring now to broaden our base to make sure that fundraising is not an issue moving forward.” 

There are three contested judicial races this year: an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals and two Mississippi Supreme Court races where incumbents face challengers. 

In the Central District race for the Supreme Court, longtime incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens, a senior member of the Court, faces a challenge from four candidates: Abby Robinson, Ceola James, Byron Carter and Jenifer Branning. In the Southern District race, incumbent Justice Dawn Beam faces a challenge from David Sullivan. 

Three people are competing for an open Court of Appeals seat: Jennifer Schloegel, Amy Lassiter St. Pe and Ian Baker. 

All candidates will appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. If a candidate does not receive a majority of the votes cast, the two candidates who received the most votes will advance to a runoff election on Nov. 26.

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As photojournalists, we travel across the state, capturing moments that resonate beyond pixels and frames. From the Delta to the Gulf Coast, we bear witness to the environmental issues shaping the lives of Mississippians firsthand. These images document the impact of climate change, pollution, and natural disasters on local communities. Traveling to the heart of these stories is integral to Mississippi Today’s commitment to honest and impactful reporting, ensuring that the voices and experiences of those affected are vividly portrayed.

By Eric J. Shelton

By Vickie King

The post Photo Gallery: Environmental coverage across Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature has been ordered to create more Black-majority House and Senate Districts by a federal three-judge panel.

“The court rightly held that the Mississippi Legislature used the redistricting process to dilute the power of Black voters. Those legislative districts denied Black Mississippians an equal voice in state government,” said Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi.

 The judges ruled in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Mississippi Conference of the NAACP and Black voters from across the state that the districts that were drawn in 2022 by the state Legislature diluted Black voting strength. Legislative redistricting occurs every 10 yeas after the federal census.

In the ruling, released late Tuesday, the federal panel said it would give the Legislature the opportunity to redraw the districts, but added, “It is the desire of this court to have new legislators elected before the 2025 legislative session convenes, but the parties can make whatever arguments about timing they conclude are valid.”

The state, which opposed the lawsuit, can argue for more time to redraw the districts. Or the state could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office, said the agency is currently reviewing the court’s opinion. She did not say whether Fitch wanted to appeal the order.

The federal panel did not accept all of the arguments of the NAACP and other plaintiffs. But the panel ruled that Black-majority Senate districts should be drawn at least in the DeSoto County area in north Mississippi and in the Hattiesburg area in south Mississippi. In addition, a new Black majority House district should be drawn in the Chickasaw County area in northeast Mississippi.

The state has a Black population of about 38%. Currently there are 42-Black majority districts in the 122-member House and 15 Black majority districts in the 52-seat Senate.

Multiple groups represented the NAACP and other plaintiffs in the case.

The three judges serving on the panel were all appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.

Charles Taylor, executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, said he was pleased with the decision “although we wish the court had gone further.”

The NAACP and others argued the totality of the 2022 redistricting by the Legislature diluted Black voting strength. Groups argued by “packing” a large percentage of Black voters in a concentrated number of districts it deprived them from having an impact in other districts. The three judge panel did not accept the total argument of the plaintiffs.

But still, the people who brought the lawsuit maintained the decision of the federal panel was a victory for Black Mississippians.

“This ruling brings us much closer to the goal of ensuring that Mississippi has a fair number of majority-Black legislative districts to go along with the majority-white ones,” said Rob McDuff, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice.

READ MORE: Lawsuit claiming Mississippi Supreme Court districts are discriminatory is set for August

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Mississippi Center for Justice and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes all participated in the case.

“This ruling affirms that the voices of Black Mississippians matter and should be reflected in the state Legislature,” said Jennifer Nwachukwu, of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Voting Rights Project.

The next step will be for either the state to appeal or present arguments to the federal panel on why the new districts should not be drawn and filled via election before the 2025 legislative session.

If the federal panel rejects potential arguments from the state about why the new districts should not be drawn before 2025, state lawmakers will likely have to convene for a special legislative session.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has the sole power to call lawmakers into a special session, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the presiding officer of the Senate, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Taylor Spillman, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, said the speaker’s office was reviewing the opinion, but had not further comment on the ruling.

The post Federal judges order Mississippi Legislature to create more Black districts, may prompt 2024 elections appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rick ducks into an abandoned Boston Logan Airport terminal to tell us about the National Federation of High Schools Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Fulton’s own “Dot” Ford Burrow, and the boys recount a fun weekend on the coast at the annual Mississippi Press Association, where Rick picked up some hardware of his own. Plus, Tyler rants about stoplights on Hwy. 49 and newly minted Texas Longhorns baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Now boarding for Boston and the Dot Burrow Bandwagon. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Despite presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women going into effect Monday, it’s still not clear how low-income pregnant women can get the timely prenatal care the law is supposed to make possible.

House Bill 539, which was signed into law by the governor on March 12, allows eligible, low-income pregnant women to receive immediate care covered by Medicaid while they wait for their application to be officially approved by the Division of Medicaid. Applications are supposed to take no longer than 45 days to process, though recent data shows nearly a third of applications in Mississippi took longer than that, bringing pregnant women well into their first trimester – when about 80% of miscarriages occur. 

The policy, which Mississippi lawmakers hope will help mitigate the state’s poor maternal and infant health metrics – some of the worst in the country – exists in 29 other states and Washington D.C. 

Mississippi Today reached out to the Division of Medicaid in late May to request an interview over the next month with an agency official to discuss what the process of presumptive eligibility and timely care for pregnant women would look like once the law went into effect July 1. The reporter continued each week to reach out to spokesperson Matt Westerfield, who on June 10 said the agency was “exploring some options” for the interview.

On June 28, Westerfield said implementation is “complex” and that the agency would only communicate through “written exchanges.”  

The agency on Tuesday issued a general statement about its commitment to implementing the policy – with no details about any outreach, public education or provider training to date.

“The Mississippi Division of Medicaid will continue to do the necessary due diligence to ensure providers interested in making presumptive eligibility determinations are qualified and trained,” Westerfield said in an email.

Not all providers who accept Medicaid will be automatically able to participate in presumptive eligibility, according to a brief explainer on Medicaid’s website posted at the end of June. 

Doctors and other qualifying providers must complete an application and undergo eligibility determination training, in addition to submitting a memorandum of understanding with the agency once approved. Then, a pregnant woman whose income falls below 194% of the federal poverty level – about $29,000 annually for an individual – can bring proof of income to the doctor and, if approved, receive prenatal care the same day. 

Westerfield said in an emailed statement in May that the agency would communicate to the public which locations are participating in the program, but said that they were “still working on what that outreach will look like.”

As of Tuesday, it is still unclear which, if any, providers are participating and whether Medicaid has sent any communication about the steps they must take if they want to participate.

“Medicaid clearly knows that the intent of the Legislature is for pregnant women to get in to see their doctor as early as possible, and they are working to stand up this program that is now the law,” said House Medicaid Chair and the bill’s author Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg. “As the author of this legislation, I will be closely monitoring the rollout of this new program and am optimistic that it will be done in a timely manner.”  

The Legislature made the bill broad enough that the Division of Medicaid would have the freedom to implement it in whatever way it saw fit, McGee explained.

“ … The Legislature’s job is to create the policy. Now that it is law, it is Medicaid’s job to implement it.”

Mississippi Today reached out to University of Mississippi Medical Center – Mississippi’s largest Medicaid provider – to determine what, if any, communication it has received about how presumptive eligibility will work.

“We are still checking into the process for this, but don’t have any comment at this time,” a hospital spokesperson told Mississippi Today on Tuesday.

In March, the number of Mississippi Medicaid applications that took more than 45 days to be processed was 29%, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, due to “unwinding.” State Medicaid divisions across the country began reviewing their rolls last year for the first time in three years after the end of COVID-19 restrictions that prevented them from unenrolling beneficiaries, and Mississippi at times had a significant application backlog.

Without presumptive eligibility, pregnant women are forced to pay out of pocket or go without care in this interim period. Early prenatal care has been proven to mitigate a number of pregnancy-related problems including hypertension – the leading cause of maternal mortality in Mississippi and across the country – and preterm births, in which Mississippi leads the nation. 

The state received more than $2 million of federal funds and an additional $602,000 in state money to implement the program, according to the 2024 Medicaid appropriation bill. 

Advocates of the policy have said the program pays for itself when compared to how much it costs the state to care for one infant’s prolonged stay in a neonatal intensive care unit, which can easily top $1 million, according to a study published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. 

How to know if you qualify

Anyone who is pregnant and makes at or below 194% of the federal poverty level qualifies for Medicaid and for presumptive eligibility. These individuals can start receiving care a soon as they find out they’re pregnant by showing proof of monthly income to a doctor at a qualifying location. 

While it’s not known which providers, if any, have chosen to participate so far, Mississippi Today will continue to monitor the Division of Medicaid’s implementation of the policy and report on qualifying providers as they sign up.

The post A new law to improve pregnancy outcomes took effect Monday. But how someone can receive timely prenatal care is still unclear. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The brother of Dau Mabil, the Jackson man whose body was recovered from the Pearl River three weeks after he disappeared, is asking a judge to enforce an order to allow an independent autopsy to proceed. 

The state’s autopsy, released late last month, determined death by drowning by unknown cause. 

In a Monday court filing, Bul Mabil of Texas argues that his brother’s widow, Karissa Bowley, is preventing the second autopsy by vetoing his choice of a qualified forensic pathologist, Dr. Matthias Okoye of Nebraska. 

“This Court did not authorize Karissa Bowley to select or veto the pathologist to conduct the independent autopsy of Dau Garang Mabil,” Lisa Ross, Bul Mabil’s attorney, wrote in the order. 

The court set a requirement for the pathologist to be at least as qualified as pathologists who conduct autopsies for the State of Mississippi along with having certain degrees or certifications. Ross argues that Okoye meets the requirements set in the court order. 

Okoye is director of the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences, a nonprofit organization that operates the forensic pathologist division of the coroner’s office for several counties in the state. 

He has investigated and certified over 15,000 deaths as a deputy and chief medical examiner and a coroner’s pathologist and has performed over 12,000 autopsies, according to his curriculum vitae included in court records. 

Spencer Bowley wrote in a Sunday email that his sister disagrees with Bul Mabil’s choice of Okoye, who Bowley noted was previously sued for providing false information in an autopsy report. 

“Dau deserves nothing less than to have all answerable questions answered regarding his death,” he wrote. “We will continue seeking to agree on a pathologist to pursue truth, rather than any individual person or organization’s agenda.”

More than a decade ago, a daycare provider sued Okoye, who authored the report used to charge her with felony child abuse for the death of a 6-week-old. The charges were later dropped. 

Okoye ruled the infant died from homicide from blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation. Pathologists hired by the plaintiff found the infant’s death was due to sudden infant death syndrome. 

In 2014, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in the woman’s malicious prosecution lawsuit by reversing the lower court’s order to grant Okoye and his organization summary judgment, finding “differing reasonable inferences (that) could be drawn as to whether Okoye knowingly provided false or misleading information in his autopsy report.” 

Another forensic pathologist offered by Bul Mabil is Dr. Frank Peretti of Arkansas, but Ross wrote in the filing that he declined to conduct the autopsy because of a potential conflict of interest. 

Bowley has offered the names of four forensic pathologists, according to a Friday email from her attorney John David Sanford included in court records. 

Okoye has also conducted an independent autopsy for at least one other Mississippi resident: Lee Demond Smith, who died in the Harrison County Jail, according to an affidavit contained in the court records. His ruling disagreed with the county pathologist’s ruling. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, a court hearing had not been scheduled to consider the motion. 

The delay comes a week and a half after the Bowleys released the state’s autopsy results. 

That day, Ross began asking the Department of Public Safety’s attorney if Mabil’s body was ready to be released. She received confirmation about a week later. 

As part of requirements for the autopsy, the court set a 30-day window for the autopsy to be conducted. 

Now that Capitol Police have finished its investigation, Ross is asking the court to act so the autopsy can be done within 30 days of June 27, which is when she received confirmation. 

In May, Bowley agreed to allow a second autopsy, and Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas wrote that it would be paid for at Bul Mabil’s “direction and expense.” 

The post Dau Mabil’s brother goes back to court to get independent autopsy started appeared first on Mississippi Today.