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LELAND – Nearly a week after gunshots ripped through homecoming celebrations killing six and hitting at least 20 people in Leland, state, local and federal law enforcement partners gathered blocks away Thursday to ask the public to continue coming forward with information. 

“We look forward to speaking with you. All information is valuable,” said Robert Eikhoff, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson. 

But the public wants answers, too. 

“What assurance do we have that all of this is going to stop or it will come to a close?” Reseann Mitchell, a Leland resident, asked the police. 

“I understand. We can’t stop it but we can slow it down,” Chief Jimmy Myrick replied. 

When asked for details about the shooting, including motives, whether the shooting was random or if the suspects had any relation to the victims, Myrick said he couldn’t answer because of the ongoing investigation. 

After the press conference, Mitchell said her son, Terregernal S. Martin, is among those charged in the shooting. She said he did not fire a weapon, but was working as security at a building near where gunfire broke out.

She said it’s been frustrating trying to get in touch with law enforcement agencies that are involved in the investigation and to advocate for her son. She has been able to talk to him on the phone while he is being held at the Washington County jail. 

“I hate to see this happen,” Mitchell said, noting how her son grew up with one of the victims. She said she was inside a club near the Leland block party and dropped to the floor when she heard gunshots and saw bodies lying on the ground. 

Nine arrests have been made in Leland, but only five names have been made public, including Martin, 33, who is charged with capital murder. The others are Morgan Lattimore, 25, charged with capital murder; Teviyon L. Powell, 29, capital murder; William Bryant, 29, capital murder; and Latoya A. Powell, 44, attempted murder.

The FBI said Martin’s bond was set at $1 million cash. Bond information for the rest was not immediately available. 

The shooting was one of several that happened during homecoming festivities on high school and college campuses last weekend, which left another four people dead and more injured. 

Two people in the Leland shooting remain in critical condition. More than 25 were hit by the gunfire.

Those killed have been identified as Oreshama Johnson, 41; Calvin Plant, 19; Shelbyona Powell, 25; Kaslyn Johnson, 18; Amos Brantley Jr., 18; and JaMichael Jones, 34.

At Thursday’s news conference, officials recognized the tragedy that the community has experienced and the grief it is processing, and said they will hold those responsible accountable.

The officials were asked about how to ensure public safety in Leland and in communities having homecoming celebrations. They responded that there would be an increased law enforcement presence. 

Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said there is much to be done to answer questions of why the shooting happened. When asked what can be done to prevent similar shootings, he said that is a question communities will need to answer. 

A day earlier in Columbus, Gov. Tate Reeves offered his potential solutions after the recent shootings: Convince young people who are committing crimes to value life and to know that actions have consequences. 

Tips can be given to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitted at  tips.fbi.gov. All tips can be made anonymously. 

Reporter Katherine Lin contributed reporting 

More than a quarter of Mississippi students are chronically absent from school.

A new report from the Mississippi Department of Education revealed that rates of chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10% of the year or 18 days of school, are on the rise.

While chronic absenteeism rates decreased slightly for middle and elementary schools, overall the percentage has more than doubled from 13% during the 2018-19 school year to 27.6% during this past school year, or 120,408 students. The increase is largely due to a huge uptick among high schoolers — a 9% increase in the past two years — especially toward the end of the year when some students are exempt from exams. 

It’s not a Mississippi-specific issue, State Superintendent Lance Evans stressed at Thursday’s state Board of Education meeting. Nationwide, chronic absenteeism rates nearly doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education reports that 28% of students were considered chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year. 

But the report comes at a precarious time for the state’s public education system. After years of huge academic gains, Mississippi students have slipped slightly in some areas, recent tests show. Absenteeism is directly tied to student achievement — when students miss school, they miss essential instruction time. It can add up, leaving chronically absent students far behind their peers. 

That’s why the agency is working hard to combat it, Evans said. 

“We already have a plan moving forward,” he told state board members on Thursday. “We’re beefing that up even more.” 

Legislators have increasingly expressed concern about the state’s chronic absenteeism rate. Evans said at the meeting that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is particularly interested in the numbers, and lawmakers heard the agency’s strategies to get more students to school at a Senate Education Committee meeting last week. 

Mississippi Department of Education officials told senators that moving forward, the agency would implement consistent systems for documenting absenteeism, focus on graduation success rather than dropout prevention and build outreach systems to intervene earlier when students start missing school. Evans said at the board meeting that the agency’s plan also calls for more personnel and an overhaul of the office that oversees attendance. 

The report also said the agency is encouraging districts to “adopt recognition programs to reinforce positive attendance habits, build partnerships with health care providers, provide flexibility for families facing extenuating circumstances.” It is also asking them to “implement grade-specific supports — such as advisory periods, peer mentoring, and career or technical pathway connections — to strengthen engagement among older students.”

The merits of engaging families on the importance of getting their child to school is clear because of the low absenteeism rates among younger students, the report notes. By grade, chronic absenteeism is lowest in Mississippi in the fourth grade, steadily decreasing each year from kindergarten. But as students advance into higher grades, rates go up again, hitting a peak in the 12th grade. 

Senators were especially concerned about the 12th-grade numbers and asked the state education agency to prioritize making senior year more about college and career preparation, so students would take attendance more seriously. Some districts permit seniors who aren’t taking a full load of classes to leave school during the day.

That was shocking news for Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, who conveyed his disappointment to education officials at the committee meeting. 

“It seems to me that what we’re doing … is signaling to students it’s not really important to come to school,” he said. “We’re shifting from the concept of, there’s an infinite number of things to learn … to something that is so focused on the requirements and testing.”

Districts with the lowest chronic absenteeism rates in the state, all lower than 15%, are Okolona School District, Jefferson County School District, East Jasper School District, New Albany Public Schools and Rankin County School District.

Jackson Public Schools, despite its chronic absenteeism rate of 37.7% district-wide, has the lowest school-specific rate in Mississippi. Just 2.5% of students at McWillie Elementary School are considered chronically absent. 

The state’s highest chronic absenteeism rates are in Claiborne County Public Schools, Moss Point School District, Simpson County School District, North Panola School District and Holly Springs. Nearly half of students at the districts are considered chronically absent. 

Smaller schools in districts with high-poverty rates have higher chronic absenteeism rates, data show. 

Superintendents for three of Mississippi’s four school districts under state control — all in areas with large low-income populations — gave presentations to state Board of Education members Thursday, directly tying chronic absenteeism to their academic struggles.

Stanley Ellis from Humphreys County said the school district was incentivizing attendance with ice cream socials, “dress down days” and recognition for students with perfect attendance. 

Yazoo City High School saw a surge in absenteeism at its high school and a 20-point drop in graduation rates, said Superintendent Earl Watkins. He stressed that improving the numbers will require a shift in perspective among parents and community members about the importance of attending school and staying the whole day.

“Parent liaisons are calling home when kids aren’t at school,” he said. “We need to change the mindset around kids needing to be at school every day.”

Mississippi lags behind other states in tech sector jobs. But Innovate Mississippi believes it might have a solution. 

The nonprofit is providing funding and training to Mississippi tech startups through a 12-week accelerator. The hope is to help companies and workers stay and grow in Mississippi.

Last week, I talked with founders that are part of this year’s cohort. They’re in early stages of development and will pitch their ideas to potential investors in November. 

The companies include software to analyze oral reading skills, an artificial intelligence-powered smart watch app to track basketball workouts and a platform to help find the best price for prescription drugs. 

So far, nobody has said that Mississippi is poised to be the next Silicon Valley. But they are excited about the opportunity to grow the tech sector here and the support available through colleges and organizations like Innovate. 

“ I think there’s a huge startup potential in Mississippi that’s untapped. There’s a lot of great ideas,” said Ricky Romanek, one of the founders of the accelerator.

Email me at marketplace@mississippitoday.org.

Other news

• China imported a record amount of soybeans in September. But the world’s largest soybean purchaser has not bought any American soybeans this year as a result of ongoing trade wars. “This is the worst economic situation for the Mississippi Delta since the early 1980s,” according to an article from The Clarion Ledger. President Trump has considered giving billions of dollars in aid to row-crop farmers but the current federal government shutdown has delayed talks. Soybean futures dropped as President Trump threatened additional tariffs on China.
• The Mississippi State Fair brought in $35 million last year and state officials hoped it would bring in more this year. In 2023, attendance was over half a million, by far the city’s largest event but attendance was down this year. Tourism is the state’s fourth largest industry, and brought in over $1 billion in tax revenue for the state in 2023.
• The Mississippi Legislature will review how to spend millions of dollars in economic development money for the counties along the Coast. “The funding has produced only a few projects that promise the kind of transformative economic impact the business community envisioned,” according to The Sun Herald.

• Elon Musk’s xAI bought a disused energy plant in DeSoto County to power its data center across the border in Memphis. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved xAI’s temporary use of portable natural gas turbines at the former Duke Energy plant for up to a year. Because the turbines are temporary and portable, they are exempt from permitting requirements under Mississippi codes. However, in a letter to the company, MDEQ “implored” xAI to minimize pollutants citing ongoing air quality issues in the area. 

READ MORE: Mississippi unemployment hovers at ‘no-hire, no-fire’ rate

After spending nearly a year living in professional limbo, former Millsaps College professor James Bowley was terminated from his tenured position in early September. But the saga that began on Nov. 6, 2024, after Bowley’s remarks in the wake of the presidential election, continues. 

Bowley, who taught religious studies, had emailed his class of three students telling them their class had been canceled, “to mourn and process this racist fascist country” after Republican Donald Trump won a second, non-consecutive term as president. The very next day, Bowley was placed on paid administrative leave while the college reviewed his use of an institutional email account “to share personal opinions” with students. 

Throughout the tumultuous grievance and appeals process in the months that followed, Bowley has maintained he does not regret his actions. A faculty grievance committee recommended Bowley be restored, but the college administration and ultimately the board of trustees overruled its decision. 

Now, he’s taking Millsaps to court. 

In his lawsuit filed Sept. 26 in Hinds County Circuit Court, Bowley alleges the college violated its contractual obligations and promises by punishing him for his speech. 

For a tenured professor to be dismissed from employment, Millsaps’ faculty handbook requires documented evidence of “neglect, indifference, incompetence, professional or personal misconduct” that “substantially” impairs the faculty member’s fulfilment of their institutional responsibilities. In its initial decision to dismiss Bowley, the college claimed he was improperly grading assignments, that attendance was being incorrectly logged and that he was neglecting and routinely canceling one of his classes. 

Bowley’s lawsuit says the college fabricated those charges against him after already having made the decision to fire him for his email. 

“What they have done to me is censorship. There’s no other way to define it,” Bowley said in an interview with Mississippi Today. “Once they get away with censorship of one person, then everybody else either protests or self censors.”

A representative for Millsaps confirmed in a statement that the college was aware of the lawsuit. “We believe the facts of this matter will speak clearly during the court process ahead,” said Joey Lee, who is Millsaps’ director of communications and community engagement. 

Bowley’s termination and subsequent lawsuit come amid a nationwide battle over academic freedom, with a spate of faculty firings in universities such as the University of Mississippi, the University of South Dakota, Clemson University and Texas A&M University. There has been pushback by civil liberties organizations such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the ACLU, some of which have also mounted legal challenges to these firings on First Amendment grounds.

“We are concerned that universities and colleges continue limiting the ability of professors to comment on important matters of public concern,” said Joshua Tom on behalf of the ACLU of Mississippi, clarifying that the organization was not commenting specifically on Bowley’s dismissal. “It is important especially in higher education for professors and students to be able to talk about and debate topics from different viewpoints. Firing people results in a shutdown of that opportunity and a worse academy.”

In the days since his termination, Bowley says, he has witnessed an outpouring of support, both from Millsaps alumni and other community groups, but still longs for justice from the courts. 

“I just do not want to be that person who bows down,” Bowley told Mississippi Today. “Freedom of speech, academic freedom – those principles, those ideas, are super important to me, and I’m willing to spend money and put time in to defend them.” 

The Senate last week approved a $925-billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon’s annual spending blueprint, with leadership from U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker. 

The measure passed the Senate 77-20, a rare bipartisan achievement in the chamber currently facing partisan gridlock and paralyzed by a government shutdown. The legislation is not final, but it sets Senate leaders up to begin negotiations with the House. 

Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that the legislation will help modernize the military and strengthen national security. 

“My colleagues and I have prioritized reindustrialization and the structural rebuilding of the arsenal of democracy, starting with drone technology, shipbuilding, and innovative low-cost weapons,” Wicker said. “We have also set out to enact historic reforms in the Pentagon’s budgeting and acquisition process to unleash innovation and root out inefficiencies.”   

The bill will now go to a conference committee to reconcile differences between the Senate measure and the version the House passed in September.

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the junior Republican senator from Mississippi, also voted for the legislation. She said in a news release that the bill will help restore the strength of the country’s national defense. 

“The FY2026 NDAA builds on the down payment we made with the One Big Beautiful Bill by authorizing funding priorities and reforms,” Hyde-Smith said.  “I thank Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker for his leadership on this bill.”

The Senate bill includes funding for military bases in Mississippi, but the specific amounts could change in the final version of the bill.

Just days after a series of shootings marred homecoming events at universities and high schools in Mississippi, other state institutions are taking extra precautions to ensure students, faculty, alumni and community members are safe. 

An outbreak of shootings occurred last weekend within a 24-hour period across the state, including at two historically Black universities, Alcorn State in Lorman and Jackson State at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. 

On Saturday night, a 29-year-old Vicksburg woman died and two others were wounded after a shooting near a building at Alcorn State’s campus. The university said Fisher was not a student. 

On the same night, a child was shot in the abdomen near the tailgating area outside Jackson State’s stadium and was taken to the hospital. One suspect was arrested in connection to the Alcorn State shooting, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Oct. 15. 

As a result, Mississippi Valley State University, another HBCU, announced it is beefing up its campus public safety presence this weekend by partnering with local, state and county law enforcement authorities. 

This includes a “series of proactive safety protocols,” like curfews for tailgating, vehicle inspections at all campus entry points and campus access restrictions with Valley State students being required to show valid ID. The university says it will step up enforcement of its ban on firearms. 

“The safety and well-being of our students, alumni, and guests remain our highest priority. We look forward to a weekend filled with school spirit, fellowship, and celebration — made even stronger by our shared commitment to keeping The Valley Safe,” a statement from the university said. “MVSU encourages all attendees to remain vigilant, respect the established guidelines, and contribute to a positive and secure Homecoming experience.” 

Delta State, another public university in the area, said it will be enforcing a clear-bag policy at all events. 

The university said it has also moved its Homecoming Green Glow, a Friday student event, from outside to Kent Wyatt Hall Atrium inside to ensure safety. Additionally, tailgating events for Friday evening have been canceled. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Saturday, and other tailgating events will end one hour after the end of the game. 

Homecoming is this Saturday at the University of Southern Mississippi and Oct. 25 at Mississippi State University. Officials at those schools also said they are taking precautions as they anticipate thousands of students, alumni and others to participate in festivities. 

As a former MVSU police chief, state Rep. Robert L. Sanders said he is saddened to hear about the shootings. The Democratic lawmaker from Cleveland said he anticipates,  as the next legislative session approaches, the House Universities and Colleges Committee will look at ways to enhance campus safety for all higher education institutions across the state. 

“We had a bad situation happen this past weekend, but this now gives us something to discuss and work toward,” said Sanders, a 1984 MVSU alum who serves on that committee. 

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, whose Delta district includes Leland, called the carnage in that city on Friday night, “senseless gun violence.” Six people were killed and multiple others wounded during a celebration downtown in what is the deadliest shooting in the country this year. 

Simmons, a Greenville Democrat, released a statement commending Valley State for its proactive measures and calling for a statewide commitment to safety as well as funding to achieve these efforts. 

“Students, alumni, families, faculty and staff look forward to homecoming,” Simmons, a Valley State alum, told Mississippi Today this week. “We don’t want the risk of violence to affect that spirit because we want to reconnect and honor our traditions of our respective schools.” 

While the shooting in Leland was at a block party, not tailgating, the Mississippi High School Activities Association is urging schools to stop on-campus tailgating in the wake of the shootings across the state, including Heidelberg and Sharkey County.

College golf takes center stage this weekend at Fallen Oak, the Beau Rivage casino’s hidden treasure in the otherwise sleepy community of Saucier, a few miles from the sandy beaches of Gulfport and Biloxi.

There, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss will combine to host the 14-team Fallen Oak Invitational, which in just three years has become one of the most prestigious fall college golf tournaments in America. Fourteen teams, including eight from the SEC and three from the Big 10 Conference, will compete.

“This is what we had in mind when we got this thing started,” said Chris Malloy, coach of the No. 4 ranked Ole Miss Rebels. “This is an outstanding field, one of the best you will see in college golf, and they will be challenged by a world class, championship course. Fallen Oak is special.”

Ole Miss, which boasts defending NCAA Champion Michael La Sasso, rates as the tournament favorite with its national ranking and three of the world’s top 45 amateur golfers. La Sasso ranks No. 9, Cameron Tankersley No. 17 and Cohen Trolio No. 45 in the latest world amateur golf rankings.

The Rebels have finished in the top three of all their previous three fall tournaments: a second at the Knoxville Collegiate, a victory at the Honors Course Collegiate at Chattanooga, and a third at the Hamptons Intercollegiate in New York. They played two of the three without La Sasso, who was participating in PGA Tour tournaments.

“Do I think we’re playing our best golf? No, probably not yet,” Malloy said. “But if you told me we’d play two of our first three tournaments without the defending NCAA Champion, have the finishes we had and be ranked like we are, I think anybody would sign up for that. I’m pleased with where we are. I like this squad.”

Mississippi State and Southern Miss also have had good starts to the season. State is coming off a victory in the Cullen Brown Collegiate, hosted by Kentucky. For the first time in school history, Southern Miss won two straight tournaments, the JT Poston Invitational at Waynesville, North Carolina, and the Badger Invitational at Madison, Wisconsin, where the Golden Eagles shot 23-under par for 54 holes and won by 10 shots.

“I think we’re playing some really solid golf,” said State coach Dusty Smith. “Winning at Kentucky was certainly a step in the right direction. We’re looking forward to building on that at Fallen Oak.”

Eddie Brescher’s Southern Miss team might be the best in school history, featuring Mississippi State Amateur champion Jake Moffitt of Ripley who won the State Am in record-breaking fashion at Grand Bear, just a few miles from Fallen Oak. Moffitt, a 19-year-old freshman, has averaged a team-best 69.67 strokes per round for his first 12 rounds of college golf.

The Golden Eagles are coming off a disappointing final round performance in the Little Rock Buick GMC Classic earlier this week, dropping from second to sixth place in the 16-team field with the team’s first over-par round of the season.

“We weren’t happy with how we finished,” Brescher said. “But I know we have a good team. We’ll just hit the reset button and try to get on another win streak.”

All three of the Mississippi coaches believe their collective success is a reflection on junior golf in the state. All three feature players who came up through various Mississippi junior programs, including the Rebels’ Trolio of West Point, who made the U.S. Amateur semifinals as a 17-year-old high school player at Oak Hill Academy, and his younger brother Colin. 

“I think the success these teams have had is a reflection on Mississippi golf as a whole,” said State’s Smith, whose team includes junior Drew Wilson of Potts Camp and freshman Jackson Cook, another product of the remarkable Oak Hill Academy program that plays out of Old Waverly in West Point.

All three Mississippi coaches also take pride in hosting the Fallen Oak event, which has some unique features, including Jumbotrons behind the ninth and 18th greens that will be showing college football teams during Saturday’s first round. The tournament also includes a Friday pro-am-styled event during which the college golfers will be paired with sponsors and hosts of the tournament.

Besides the three Mississippi teams, the field includes Alabama, Arkansas, Chattanooga, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana State University, South Carolina, Tennessee, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Wisconsin. Said USM’s Brescher, “It’s about as close as you’re going to get to a post-season quality field during the fall.”

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality permit board on Wednesday reversed a decision from earlier this year and granted wood pellet manufacturer Drax a permit that allows it to release more emissions from a facility in Gloster, in the rural southwestern corner of the state.

The board held a two-day evidentiary hearing after denying the company the permit in April. The permit falls under Title V of the Clean Air Act and allows Drax’s facility Amite BioEnergy, to become a “major source” of Hazardous Air Pollutants, or HAPs.

The board voted unanimously in favor of granting the permit said Kim Turner, a state assistant attorney general who served as hearing officer. Evidence from the hearing “sufficiently addressed” concerns the board previously had over Drax’s compliance history, Turner said.

MDEQ has found the facility in violation multiple times since Drax opened the Amite County plant in 2016. Last year, the agency fined Drax $250,000 for releasing over 50% more than its permitted limit of HAPs while it was a “minor source.” In 2020, MDEQ fined Drax $2.5 million for underestimating its release of Volatile Organic Compounds since 2016.

For years since learning that the company had underestimated its emissions, nearby Gloster residents alleged that air pollutants, dust and noise from the facility were causing an array of health issues. Several who testified to MDEQ and people who spoke to Mississippi Today reported issues such as headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing. Nonprofit Greater Greener Gloster represented those residents as an intervenor in the hearing and asked the permit board to affirm its April decision.

Drax applied for the permit in order to better reflect its production capacity. Since violating the current permit, Amite BioEnergy has had to decrease its pellet output. The company maintained a commitment to staying in compliance going forward, advertising the facility’s ability to automatically shut off when emissions exceeded legal limits.

It argued that the new regulation would be more stringent than any other the company has at its 17 locations in North America.

“ What we’re asking you to do is confirm that if a company works with MDEQ to develop a technically sound, environmentally protective permit  which is feasible and enforceable, then that company can do business in Mississippi,” said Abram Orlansky, an attorney for Drax.

The United Kingdom-based company turns locally sourced wood into pellets that it then ships to other countries for their clean energy goals, although many scientists believe the practice is actually more harmful than other energy sources in terms of net carbon emissions. Drax and other wood pellet companies have faced a wave of both local and international scrutiny for repeated air emissions violations across multiple Southern states.

The distinction of a major source means that the wood pellet facility no longer has a limit on how many tons of HAPs it can release into the air, but it also means the facility has to follow stricter limits over the rate at which it can release the pollutants.

Extended exposure of large amounts of HAPs can increase the chances of health effects such as cancer, damage to the immune system, neurological, reproductive, developmental and respiratory issues among other symptoms, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Much of the hearing’s debate centered on the facility’s “control efficiency,” or how much of its HAPs it could destroy before releasing. While the permit MDEQ presented outlined a 96% destruction rate, witness testimony argued the facility could achieve a 99% rate, which would yield a quarter of the potentially harmful emissions.

“These devices, as installed, could be operated a lot better,” said Ranajit Sahu, an engineering consultant.

Yet, MDEQ Air Division Chief Jaricus Whitlock said no place he has seen requires such a high rate.

In contrast with April’s hearing, attendees on Tuesday and Wednesday included a dozen or so people with blue “Drax” stickers supporting the company’s permit application. Matt White, the company’s executive vice president, said the local community supported Drax because of its job creation and tax contributions. While Drax staff testified that most of the facility’s employees live within an 11-mile radius of the plant, they could not say how many live in Gloster.

“We are pleased that the (permit board) has listened to the clear recommendations of its own technical staff, and the voices of Gloster community leaders, local businesses and a large number of our neighbors in Gloster, to approve our Title V permit application,” Michelli Martin, the company’s U.S. communications manager, said in a statement after the hearing.

Following the permit board’s decision, law firm Singleton Schreiber announced Thursday morning that a group of Gloster residents filed a federal lawsuit against Drax, alleging the company has for nearly the last decade violated the Clean Air Act. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, seeks injunctive relief and penalties over the loss of property value and safe use of the plaintiffs’ homes.

Update 10/16/25: This story has been updated to include a comment from the company about DEQ’s decision and that a lawsuit against Drax has been filed in federal court.

Charles Ray Crawford died by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Mississippi State Penitentiary over 30 years after he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered 20-year-old community college student Kristie Ray in Tippah County. 

It was Mississippi’s second execution of the year and the third in the U.S. this week, following executions Tuesday in Florida and Missouri. Including Crawford, 38 people have been executed in the U.S. this year, and six more executions are scheduled in the nation through the end of the year.

The execution got underway at 6:01 p.m. and Crawford could be seen taking deep breaths, The Associated Press reported. Five minutes later, he was declared unconscious. At 6:08 p.m., his breathing became slower and shallower and his mouth quivered. A minute later, he took a deep breath and then his chest appeared to stop moving.

Crawford, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m.

He had spoken his final words while strapped to a gurney. 

“To my family, I love you,” Crawford said just before the lethal-injection drugs started flowing. “I’m at peace. I’ve got God’s peace. … I’ll be in heaven.”

He also said, “To the victim’s family, true closure and true peace, you cannot reach that without God.”

His final words were, “Thank you, God, for giving me the peace that I have.”

In 1994, Crawford was convicted of capital murder and received a death sentence. The next three decades he pursued appeals challenging the sentence, as well as separate sentences for aggravated assault and rape that were used as a basis for the death penalty. 

At the time of Ray’s killing in January 1993, Crawford was days away from a separate trial for sexual and physical violence in 1991 against two teenage girls. He cut through the screen to the bedroom of Ray’s home and left a ransom note demanding $15,000. 

He took her to a wooded area where he raped her and then stabbed her in the chest. He claimed to experience blackouts but was able to show law enforcement where to find her body. 

On Wednesday, Ray’s mother Mary traveled to Parchman to witness the execution, but her father Tommy was not able to be there because of his health, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.  

Mary Ray did not offer comment after the execution, but last week she told the Tupelo newspaper that witnessing it would not change a thing. 

“I don’t like the word ‘closure,’” she said. “I have a hole in my heart as big as my heart that will never be closed.”

After the execution, Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch said her office has pursued justice for the Ray family and Crawford’s other victims and prayed they received long-awaited closure. 

Leading up to the execution, Crawford petitioned the U.S Supreme Court to halt the execution. The high court denied his final appeal Wednesday evening. 

The day of the execution he also filed emergency motions to stay the execution with the Mississippi Supreme Court, which were denied by the afternoon. 

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves denied a clemency petition, noting circumstances of the crime and how Crawford did not claim innocence. 

A consciousness check was performed on Crawford after the first of the three lethal injection drugs were administered, which prison officials said earlier in the day was required at the state’s most recent execution in June. 

In a statement after the execution, Crawford’s attorneys from the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel said he was put to death without receiving a fair trial.

“Despite a legal system that failed him, Charles Crawford (‘Chuck’) spent every day in prison trying to be the best person, family member, friend and Christian he could be,” the statement read.

Crawford’s surviving family members include a sister, his father and stepmother. 

At trial, prosecutors asked several of Crawford’s family members if they still loved him in spite of the crimes and if they wanted him to be executed. They said they love him but don’t support what he did, and that they did not want him to receive the death penalty.

In closing arguments before the death sentence was handed down, prosecutors said the Crawford family shifted blame onto others for his actions and they criticized his mother for a number of actions, including not calling law enforcement earlier, helping him pay for bond and “letting him out” of the house with a shotgun. 

Hours before the execution Wednesday, Parchman Superintendent Marc McClure said Crawford seemed relaxed and visited with his family and a preacher he requested. 

Crawford asked for a double cheeseburger, fries and two desserts – peach cobbler and chocolate ice cream – for his last meal, prison officials said. 

Starting in the afternoon, demonstrators gathered outside the prison gates in the Delta community of Parchman and the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson. 

Organizations including Death Penalty Action and Catholic Mobilizing Network circulated petitions that called on the governor to stop the execution, citing Crawford’s argument about how his trial attorneys admitted his guilt and pursued an insanity defense against his wishes. 

Crawford was the second Mississippi inmate executed this year, following the lethal injection of Richard Jordan in June. The state resumed executions in 2021 after a 12-year hiatus. 

Thirty six people remain on death row in Mississippi, and the attorney general’s office is seeking execution dates for two – Willie Jerome Manning and Robert Simon Jr.

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting. 

Updated, 10/15/2025: This story has been updated to add information about the timeline of Crawford’s execution and to include information about other executions in the U.S. this year.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to gut a key tool of the Voting Rights Act that has helped root out racial discrimination in voting for more than a half century, a change that would boost Republican electoral prospects, particularly across the South.

During more than two hours of arguments, the court’s six conservative justices seemed inclined to effectively strike down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana because it relied too heavily on race.

Such an outcome would mark a fundamental change in the 1965 voting rights law, the centerpiece legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, that succeeded in opening the ballot box to Black Americans and reducing persistent discrimination in voting.

A ruling for Louisiana could open the door for legislatures to redraw congressional maps in southern states, helping Republican electoral prospects by eliminating majority Black and Latino districts that tend to favor Democrats. Legislatures already are free to draw extremely partisan districts, subject only to review by state courts, because of a 2019 Supreme Court decision.

In September, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed papers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to to sharply curtail the federal Voting Rights Act by limiting who can sue to enforce protection against racial discrimination at the ballot box.

Fitch, a Republican, is appealing a federal district court judge’s ruling that said state lawmakers must redraw the three Mississippi Supreme Court districts because they dilute Black voting strength. The district court judge’s ruling forbids the state from using the current maps in future Mississippi Supreme Court elections. It is pending before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the appellate court has paused all proceedings in the appeal until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on redistricting cases.

Just two years ago, the nation’s highest court, by a 5-4 vote, affirmed a ruling that found a likely violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a case over Alabama’s political boundaries. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined their three more liberal colleagues in the outcome.

Roberts and Kavanaugh struck a different tone Wednesday, especially in their questions to civil rights lawyer Janai Nelson.

The chief justice suggested the Alabama decision was tightly focused on its facts and should not be read to require a similar outcome in Louisiana.

Kavanaugh pressed Nelson on whether the time has come to end the use of race-based districts under the Voting Rights Act, rather than “allowing it to extend forever.”

The court’s liberal justices focused on the history of the Voting Rights Act in combating discrimination. Getting to the remedy of redrawing districts only happens if, as Justice Elena Kagan said, a court finds “a specific identified, proved violation of law.”

A mid-decade battle over congressional redistricting already is playing out across the nation after Republican President Donald Trump began urging Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their lines to make it easier for the GOP to hold its narrow majority in the House.

The court’s conservative majority has been skeptical of considerations of race, most recently ending affirmative action in college admissions. Twelve years ago, the court bludgeoned another pillar of the landmark voting law that required states with a history of racial discrimination to get advance approval from the Justice Department or federal judges before making election-related changes.

The court has separately given state legislatures wide berth to gerrymander for political purposes. If the Supreme Court now weakens or strikes down the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2, states would not be bound by any limits in how they draw electoral districts. Such a result would be expected to lead to extreme gerrymandering by whichever party is in power at the state level.

The court’s Alabama decision in 2023 led to new districts there and in Louisiana that sent two more Black Democrats to Congress.

Now, though, the court has asked the parties to answer a fundamental question: “Whether the state’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”

Louisiana and the Trump administration joined with a group of white voters in arguing to invalidate the challenged district and make it much harder to claim discrimination in redistricting.

The arguments led Justice Sonia Sotomayor to assert that the administration’s “bottom line is just get rid of Section 2.”

Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan disagreed and said state lawmakers would have no incentive to get rid of every majority-Black district because doing so would create swing districts and imperil some Republican incumbents.

In addition, Mooppan said, only 15 of the 60 Black members of the House represent majority-Black districts. “But even if you eliminated Section 2 entirely, fully 75% of the Black congressmen in this country are in districts that are not protected by Section 2.”

In the first arguments in the Louisiana case in March, Roberts sounded skeptical of the second majority-Black district, which last year elected Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields. Roberts described the district as a “snake” that stretches more than 200 miles to link parts of the Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas.

The court fight over Louisiana’s congressional districts has lasted three years. The state’s Republican-dominated legislature drew a new congressional map in 2022 to account for population shifts reflected in the 2020 census. But the changes effectively maintained the status quo of five Republican-leaning, majority-white districts and one Democratic-leaning, majority-Black district.

Civil rights advocates won a lower-court ruling that the districts likely discriminated against Black voters.

Louisiana eventually drew a new map to comply with the court ruling and protect its influential Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. But white Louisiana voters claimed in their separate lawsuit that race was the predominant factor driving it. A three-judge court agreed, leading to the current high court case.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule by early summer in 2026.

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AP’s Mark Sherman reported from Washington. Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance contributed from Jackson.