Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, a Republican candidate for governor next year, says he’s concerned the proliferation of data centers in Mississippi puts the state at risk and that he’s hearing major concerns about data centers and AI from Mississippians as he campaigns across the state. Gipson said data centers and the AI boom are being funded by debt and “circular financing,” similar to what happened with other tech before the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. He said he’s also concerned about the “AI impact on humanity,” the environment and utility consumers’ costs.
Mississippi’s foster care system continues to endanger children under its care at higher rates than a federal court order permits, according to a new report for a federal lawsuit the state seeks to dismiss.
The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services met 22 of 107 applicable safety measures related to the agency’s care of foster children throughout most of 2025, a court monitor found. The measures are agreed upon by the department and plaintiff lawyers in the Olivia Y. v. Barbour federal lawsuit, a decades-old case that alleged Mississippi frequently endangers those in the state’s child welfare system.
The report, published on July 29, says that children in the state’s care experienced abuse or neglect at more than twice an acceptable rate, were frequently placed in unlicensed facilities or with relatives before the department finished background checks and often went without required visits from caseworkers.
The department also undercounted how many foster children experienced abuse and didn’t provide enough information for the monitor to determine whether some requirements were being met, according to the report. The monitor did find that caseworkers more frequently had appropriate caseloads and foster children were less often placed in overcrowded homes compared to previous years.
The latest assessment is the first full court monitor report published since 2021, when lawyers for both sides agreed that Mississippi’s child protection department doesn’t “have the capacity to comply” with the settlement.
In an affidavit filed in May, Department Commissioner Andrea Sanders said through policy and organizational efforts, the state has since made positive changes to its foster care system that “have been far reaching, covering the work of the Agency across many areas” like staffing improvements and technology upgrades.
Sanders is the fourth commissioner of Mississippi’s child protection department, an agency created in 2015 as a result of the Olivia Y. lawsuit.
Gov. Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, represented by Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office and the national law firm Baker Donelson, are trying to dismiss the lawsuit. Their lawyers said earlier this year that Mississippi has made sufficient progress in keeping children safe.
Reeves and the state’s child welfare department did not respond to emails from Mississippi Today. MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Fitch’s office, said the office does not comment on active litigation and would speak through its court responses.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden, who’s overseeing the lawsuit, said lawyers representing Mississippi foster children could wait until the court monitor submitted its 2025 report to file a response to the state’s motion to dismiss. Marcia Lowry, the lead lawyer for the foster children, told Mississippi Today the report contradicts the state’s position on the case.
“It’s one thing to make grand statements,” Lowry said. “‘We’re going to keep all children safe. We’re going to give all children whatever they need.’ But then you have to find out whether you’re really doing that, and they’re not doing it in Mississippi.”
Lawyers for Reeves and Mississippi’s child welfare agency asked Ozerden to require a response from Lowry about their motion to dismiss the case before the report was published, saying it “has no bearing” on their argument. Lowry disagreed in a filing, saying that the report would contain core elements related to the motion.
Underreported abuse and insufficient investigations
Many of the dozens of required safety measures Mississippi’s child welfare agency didn’t meet have direct implications on foster children’s wellbeing.
For example, lawyers for both sides agreed that except in certain circumstances, no foster child under the age of 10 should be placed in group housing — where abuse and mistreatment can be a high risk. But the monitor found 22 children under the age of 10 living in these facilities who shouldn’t have been placed there. Additionally, the department only completed reports on mistreatment in a timely manner about half the time, far below the court’s 90% standard.
Case workers make in-person visits to assess the physical and mental wellbeing of foster children, but the report says they are doing so at much lower rates than the standard. It found that the child welfare agency self-reported its workers attending less than half of their required meetings with children, foster parents and biological families.
The report also highlighted specific examples of alleged abuse from last year that Mississippi’s child welfare department may have mishandled. In one investigation the monitoring team reviewed, three teenage children alleged a range of abuse from their foster parent, from encouraging fights between the children to leaving one child so traumatized that the teenager needed acute care for suicidal thoughts. The state’s investigation found insufficient evidence for the allegations, but the monitor report says the state did not look into several of them.
In another, different children had reported a foster mother of being physically and verbally abusive four times within a year and a half, including restricting how frequently they could use the bathroom. Mississippi’s child protection department said all the allegations were unsubstantiated, but the report says caseworkers documented enough evidence at least once to suggest that professionals should address the concerns. It was unclear to the monitor if the department ever provided that intervention.
Marcia Lowry, founder and executive director of A Better Childhood. Credit: Photo courtesy of A Better Childhood
Lowry blamed Sanders, who has led the agency since 2020, for many of the issues the report identified. She said the changes Sanders cited in her May affidavit haven’t resulted in tangible results for Mississippi foster children.
“She’s gotten the overall number of workers to be within a reasonable limit, but I don’t know what else she’s been doing,” Lowry said. “Because there are so many issues here that are so important to kids and to their safety.”
Lack of data makes some measures unknown
Data collection and reporting issues made it difficult for the monitor to determine whether the state’s child welfare agency was meeting certain lawsuit safety standards, according to the report. For a dozen measures, the monitor said the Mississippi agency didn’t provide enough information to make a reliable assessment.
The report also says the child protection services department miscalculated some safety measures. The agency identified 25 to 30 incidents of foster child maltreatment during the monitoring period, but the monitor found at least 18 more that should’ve been included. Out of a random sample of mistreatment investigations, the report found that only 82% of the department’s conclusions were backed by available evidence.
While certain measures, including the rates of foster child mistreatment, have improved since the last full report in 2020, the number of measures Mississippi’s child welfare agency met decreased in 2025. Many of the safety measures that have improved still do not meet agreed-upon safety standards.
Lowry said she plans to incorporate this report into her team’s response to Mississippi’s motion to dismiss the Olivia Y. lawsuit, which it has to file by late August. Whether the lack of data or actual violations led to Mississippi not meeting the agreed-upon safety measures, she said, the number of unfulfilled requirements is unacceptable.
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “The differences are not one or two kids. The differences are significant.”
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Residents and visitors who sued Lexington police have settled their federal lawsuits over what they alleged was a pattern of misconduct including excessive force, unlawful search and seizures, retaliatory arrests and detentions without due process, the ACLU of Mississippi announced Monday.
Amounts of the settlement were not disclosed, and the deal came with no admission or finding of liability or wrongdoing by the defendants, according to the ACLU. The lawsuits were against the city, the police department, several named officers and former police chiefs Sam Dobbins and Charles Henderson.
“Police hold a powerful role in our society. While performing that role, they must balance enforcing the law and protecting constitutional rights. This settlement helps achieve that balance for the LPD, our clients and the residents of Lexington,” Joshua Tom, legal director at the ACLU of Mississippi, said in a statement.
One plaintiff, Deborah Powell, alleged in her 2024 lawsuit that in her 2024 lawsuit that Lexington officers threw her to the ground and put her in jail for days just for trying to get a court-ordered reimbursement from the police department.
Javarius Russell, who is also a law enforcement officer, alleged in his 2023 lawsuit that police arrested him for a vehicle crash he said didn’t happen and jailed him over a long weekend. Former chief Dobbins told him if he paid $2,700, he would be released and the charges dropped.
Plaintiff Andrial Young alleged in his 2024 lawsuit that officers stopped his car saying that he failed to wear a seatbelt, but he had one on. Officers claimed they smelled marijuana and asked to search his vehicle. Young declined the search, leading officers to remove him and search the car, anyway. They did not find any illegal substances. After the search, officers arrested Young and detained him for hours at the police station.
On Monday, the three plaintiffs said the settlement, which was signed off on by the court, has brought them some justice.
“I hope this settlement helps Lexington improve its policing in the future,” Young said.
Dobbins was Lexington’s chief until his 2022 firing days after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting first reported him using racist and homophobic language when he bragged about killing multiple people while working as a law enforcement officer.
Henderson, Dobbins’ second in command, became the new police chief and served until January of this year, when his certification was suspended due to a violation of the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. The alleged violation took place in Jackson in November 2024 when Henderson worked for the Jackson Police Department.
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a pattern and practice investigation into the Lexington police and its investigation report detailing the department’s violations of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments. The DOJ found Lexington police jailed people for unpaid fines without determining whether people could afford to pay, resulting in a “two-tiered system of justice.”
This year, the Lexington Board of Aldermen adopted some Justice Department recommendations, including efforts to ensure officers who make stops, searches and arrests are authorized to use force with clear direction, that they have sufficient training and supervision and that the department improves record-keeping to hold officers accountable for inappropriate or unlawful conduct.
The ACLU of Mississippi partnered with law firms Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, O’Melveny & Myers, and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, which worked on the lawsuits pro bono.
Craig C. Martin, lead counsel for Willkie, said the settlement shows clients’ courage, the team’s hard work and a chance to restore trust and integrity in Lexington.
The Lexington lawsuits were part of the ACLU of Missisisppi’s Police Accountability Initiative, which focuses on police violence, racial discrimination and unconstitutional policing practices around the state through litigation, advocacy and partnerships.
In the Monday statement, the ACLU of Mississippi said it will continue work on police accountability and reform and its support of people affected by unconstitutional policing. police accountability and reform and its support of community members affected by unconstitutional policing.
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Following a request from temporary Hinds District Attorney Brad McCullouch, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to pay for a prosecutor to resolve cases that haven’t gone to trial.
McCullouch told the board that the new prosecutor would work to quell crowding in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond – a proposal that delighted some of the county’s five supervisors.
The new DA was appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves in July after former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and resigned.
“All I can say is, ‘outstanding idea,’” said District 2 Supervisor Tony Smith, who represents the county’s rural, westernmost district from Bolton to Utica.
One cause of overpopulation at the jail is that cases trickle through the county’s justice system, with some people sitting in jail for over a year before trial. As of Sunday, the jail, which has 594 beds, is overcapacity by more than 300 people, according to the county’s daily inmate count.
McCullouch argued that an additional prosecutor would allow the office to indict cases faster or offer defendants an alternative resolution more quickly.
Brad McCullouch, a Madison attorney appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves as Hinds County district attorney in July, discusses proposals he believes could reduce crowding at the jail. Credit: Molly Minta/Mississippi Today
The county pays for salary supplements to each of the 15 state-funded prosecutors in the district attorney’s office, which prosecutes felony cases in the state’s Seventh Circuit Court District. The money for the additional prosecutor will come from the county’s “unappropriated surplus,” said Lynn Seals, the county administrator.
Seals said the county’s comptroller would know the total dollar amount of the county’s unallocated surplus, but the comptroller did not return an email from Mississippi Today by press time.
The boost to the DA’s budget comes after supervisors heard pleas from the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office earlier this year to increase the salaries of the county’s 23 public defenders.
For years, Gail Wright Lowery, the head public defender, has told the board that her office experiences persistent turnover because public defenders are not paid enough in Hinds County. Lowery has also argued that this turnover leads to jail crowding because indigent defendants lack an attorney who could seek their release.
At the time, the board told Lowery the county didn’t have the funds for a $350,000 across-the-board pay raise she had requested.
“If we can get these people out, then we can have extra money to give you guys a raise,” Smith said earlier this year. “So the problem is, I understand you need more money. I wish we had (it) to give it.”
Seals then found about $261,000 in leftover pandemic relief money the county had previously allocated to construction of a water tower at the new jail.
But the stopgap funding didn’t stop the turnover in Lowery’s office. On Monday, McCullouch attended the board meeting with a new prosecutor who recently left the public defender’s office, virtually doubling his salary overnight.
In addition to resolving cases of people who haven’t been indicted, McCullouch told the board the new prosecutor would work to reduce the number of people in Raymond on nonviolent charges or who need “expedited medical services.”
“We think it’s going to be dramatic savings to the county,” he said.
District 5 Supervisor Bobby “Bobcat” McGowan was the lone voice opposing the new prosecutor. He asked McCullouch: “My question is, do we got to pay for it? Is it in your budget, what you’re trying to do?”
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Lawmakers on Monday took the first steps toward potentially redrawing Mississippi’s legislative, congressional and judicial districts in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Louisiana v. Callais decision that weakened minority voting protections.
The Joint Redistricting and Reapportionment Committee, comprised of House members and senators, met at the state Capitol for the first time since the Supreme Court ruling. The state legislative committee will solicit input from voters in eight different areas of the state over the next two months on how the districts should be redrawn in light of the Callais decision.
The committee also voted to hire attorneys from Butler Snow to serve as general counsel. Republican Sen. Dean Kirby from Pearl was elected chairman of the committee, and Republican Rep. Noah Sanford of Collins was named vice chair.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann declined to say which districts he thinks the committee should prioritize or even if it was certain the committee will redraw judicial, legislative and congressional districts.
“I don’t want to pre-suppose anything,” Hosemann said. “The committee needs to do its work. They’re going to be going all over Mississippi hearing from people.”
Though the committee has scheduled eight hearings, some voting rights activists worry the hearings are merely a facade, and lawmakers have already made up their mind to dismantle majority Black districts.
Amir Badat is the Southern states director and senior adviser for Fair Fight Action, a voting rights advocacy organization. He told Mississippi Today in a statement that the committee’s redistricting process is “putting lipstick on a pig.”
“At its core, this process is an effort to diminish Black political power,” Badat said. “No number of meetings or public hearings will change that fact. If the joint committee truly cared about what the public wants, it would end this sham process before it begins.”
The joint hearing came after Scott Colom, Mississippi’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, organized a voting-rights town hall on Saturday evening with Democratic U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Mississippi NAACP Director Charles Taylor.
The panel encouraged the roughly 100 attendees at Farish Street Baptist Church in Jackson to make sure they’re registered to vote, help register other people to vote and turn out to vote in record numbers.
Alsobrooks told Mississippi Today that she would encourage Mississippians to “stay the course and keep fighting” against efforts to weaken majority Black districts.
“It was not all that long ago, we’re reminded, that John Lewis walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was beaten within an inch of his life with a pole that was wrapped in barbed wire” as he marched for voting rights for Black people, Alsobrooks said. “It was a sacrosanct right that we’re never going to give up.”
If the committee decides to tackle congressional redistricting, Thompson, Mississippi’s lone Black and Democratic official in Washington, will almost certainly be targeted by the majority-Republican state Legislature.
Some Republicans, such as state Auditor Shad White, have called on the Legislature to effectively dismantle Thompson’s district, which comprises portions of the Jackson metro area and the majority-Black Delta.
Thompson told Mississippi Today on Saturday that his campaign team will be monitoring the hearings and hopes state lawmakers will truly be receptive to the comments they gather from the public hearings.
“I hope their work will be done in public and not behind closed doors,” Thompson said.
Here is the schedule of hearings that will take place at 6 p.m.:
Aug. 18 at Itawamba Community College in Tupelo
Aug. 27 at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia
Sept. 1 at Delta State University in Cleveland
Sept. 8 at Alcorn State University in Natchez
Sept.10 at a venue to be determined in Meridian
Sept. 17 at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg
Sept. 22 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport
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A former University of Mississippi vice chancellor for student affairs no longer faces animal abuse charges stemming from the discovery of malnourished dogs and remains on property she and her husband own.
Lafayette County Circuit Judge Gray Tollison dismissed 10 felony charges and 10 misdemeanor counts against Charlotte Fant Pegues because her husband and co-defendant, Terry Pegues, “testified at trial he was the sole provider for the dogs at issue,” according to a Wednesday order.
In August 2024, Lafayette County sheriff’s deputies went to the couple’s rural property south of Oxford and found several bulldog puppies caged “in a cruel matter,” a burned dog, a dog skeleton and a German Shepard mix dead in a kennel, according to the indictment for Fant Pegues and Pegues.
Deputies found dogs alive, including several that were malnourished, court records state. Ten were found dead, including some that still had collars and chains attached to them.
Graham Carner, Fant Pegues’ attorney, said she plans to move forward after maintaining her innocence for the past two years.
“While the dismissal vindicates her from a legal standpoint, she has been severely damaged from these rushed and baseless charges. Dr. Pegues lost her career, and the reputation that she built over a lifetime has been irreparably harmed,” Carner said in a Monday statement.
Charlotte Fant Pegues Credit: University of Mississippi
Fant Pegues worked at Ole Miss from 1993 until 2025 in roles such as assistant provost and director of admissions. She began serving as vice chancellor for student affairs in 2019 when she was appointed on an interim basis. Fant Pegues went on personal leave after the indictment and retired July 1, 2025,Ole Miss spokesperson Jacob Batte confirmed.
Batte declined to comment Monday about the dismissed charges. In a statementaround the time Fant Pegues was indicted, he said Ole Miss leaders were “deeply disturbed and appalled by any instance of animal cruelty” and clarified in a later statement that the charges did not result from any actions taken at or for the university.
Fant Pegues’ charges were dismissed two weeks after her husband’s trial.
A jury convicted Pegues on five counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and sentenced him to a maximum six months per charge to run consecutively. Tollison suspended six months of the sentence, leaving Pegues to serve two years in the Lafayette County Detention Center.
The judge prohibited him from owning, possessing or living with a dog for 15 years, according to Pegues’ sentencing order. The sheriff’s office is permitted to make unannounced visits to make sure he is following the court’s prohibition after release for six months.
The court also ordered Pegues to pay a $1,000 fine for four counts, totaling $4,000.
The jury acquitted him of five misdemeanor cruelty charges and eight felony charges of aggravated animal cruelty. It declared a mistrial for two felony charges, meaning prosecutors could retry them with a new jury, dismiss them or reach a plea deal.
Pegues told Mississippi Today in 2024 that he was “asking for a federal investigation due to false facts.”
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The campaign for Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch said on Monday that she will embark on an “announcement tour” across Mississippi, a move that could signal the launch of her campaign for governor.
The tour was unveiled in a news release from Fitch’s campaign email address, which said she will make a “special announcement” Wednesday morning at the Mississippi Republican Headquarters in Jackson. She will then travel to Hattiesburg and Gulfport later that day, followed by stops in Meridian, Columbus, Tupelo, Cleveland and Southaven on Thursday and Friday.
Fitch could run for a third term as attorney general, but it is common for elected officials to travel the state as they announce a run for another office. Secretary of State Michael Watson embarked on a similar tour the day he launched his campaign for lieutenant governor. Two of Fitch’s Republican rivals for the Governor’s Mansion, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson and former House Speaker Philip Gunn, have both been traveling the state since launching their campaigns.
Mississippi Today also obtained a photo of an email exchange from a local chapter of the Mississippi Federation of Republican Women — a political organization that has supported Fitch throughout her career as state treasurer and attorney general — that shows members encouraging each other to show up for Fitch’s announcement of her “candidacy for Mississippi governor.”
Morgan Baldwin, Fitch’s longtime political strategist, told Mississippi Today he would “let Attorney General Fitch speak for herself” when asked for more details on the announcement tour.
At the Neshoba County Fair in June, Fitch stopped short of announcing a run for governor, but said she would make her 2027 intentions known soon.
“I’ve been very encouraged by people across the state, and I’m so grateful for the encouragement and faith and the trust people have put into me as the attorney general and the treasurer,” Fitch said. “I’m excited about next steps.”
In a speech that pointed toward the future, Fitch said Mississippi is nearing a pivotal moment that would shape its trajectory for years to come.
“We’re at a moment when we can transform Mississippi from one of the nation’s best kept secrets to the very top of the leaderboard,” Fitch said.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who was elected in 2019 and 2023, is limited to two terms. Gunn and Gipson have formally entered the race to succeed Reeves. In addition to Fitch, other Republicans considering a run for governor in bright-red Mississippi include Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, state Auditor Shad White, former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper,and billionaire businessman Tommy Duff.
Fitch, a Holly Springs native, served two terms as state treasurer before being elected attorney general in 2019. She began her legal career in the attorney general’s office as a special assistant attorney general. She has also served as executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, worked in private practice and was deputy executive director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
Fitch garnered national attention for her role in advancing the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. That decision, which was argued by attorneys in Fitch’s office, upended what had been a nationwide right to abortion.
Fitch is the first woman to serve as attorney general in the state, and would also be the first woman to serve as Mississippi’s governor, if elected.
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The family of a woman who died of cancer has reached a legal settlement with a Mississippi prison system healthcare provider she sued in federal court claiming it failed to diagnose and treat her disease until it spread.
Susie Balfour died of breast cancer last year at the age of 64. Her lawsuit said exposure to cleaning chemicals in prison might have led to her cancer, and that prison health providers delayed or failed to schedule follow-up cancer screenings for Balfour even though they had been recommended by prison physicians. She only learned about the disease two weeks before her 2021 release from prison after serving more than 30 years.
Balfour sued three companies contracted to provide healthcare to prisoners at the facility over the course of her sentence — Wexford Health Sources, Centurion Health and VitalCore, the current prison medical provider. In an order handed down last week, U.S. Southern District Judge Kristi H. Johnson wrote that Balfour’s family had reached a settlement with VitalCore.
“This is one step in the fight to get justice for Susie, and for everyone who continues to be incarcerated and denied life saving care,” Balfour’s sister said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “We will not stop until those responsible are held accountable. These corporations choose profits over patients, and we intend to make sure those responsible for such inhumane greed answer for it.”
Balfour’s attorneys said they could not reveal specific terms of the settlement.
Wexford was dismissed as a defendant, while Balfour’s family intends to continue its lawsuit against Centurion. The companies have argued they followed laws with respect to the provision of healthcare to prisoners. A trial could begin in September or October. Balfour died in Shelby County, Tennessee, so a probate court needs to approve the settlement with VitalCore, Johnson wrote in her order.
Kansas-based VitalCore has settled other litigation from former prisoners alleging inadequate care, and some lawmakers have attempted to pass laws that could lead to its replacement as the prison medical contractor. It has recieved hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds for its work as Mississippi’s prison health contractor.
A spokesperson for VitalCore did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.
During more than 30 years of incarceration, Balfour used cleaning chemicals without protective gear, which likely contributed to her cancer, she argued in the federal lawsuit she filed in 2024.
She placed blame on the prison health system’s current and former healthcare providers for failing to diagnose and treat the cancer for years, including not taking her for recommended mammograms and waiting until 2021 to take a biopsy, which ultimately confirmed the diagnosis.
“I just want everybody to be held accountable,” Balfour told Mississippi Today in 2024. “… and I just want justice for myself and other ladies and men in there who are dealing with the same situation I am dealing with.”
Similar cancer diagnoses and delayed care might not have been isolated to Balfour. An earlier version of her lawsuit alleged at least 15 other incarcerated women contracted cancer after using cleaning materials at the Mississippi women’s prison, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, and similarly had their diagnoses and care withheld, but some of those women were not plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Balfour’s family continued her lawsuit after her death. The court allowed her to give a deposition months before her passing to preserve her testimony for the case. Shirley Balfour, who is the executor of her late sister’s estate, took over as the plaintiff in the suit. Balfour’s son, Duwan, also joined the lawsuit as the wrongful death beneficiary.
Balfour’s story also led to legislative reform that could protect future Mississippi prisoners from suffering a similar fate.
When Rep. Justis Gibbs, a Democrat from Jackson, caught wind of her story, he drafted legislation during the 2025 session to require protective equipment for prisoners. The bill died in the Senate, but he tried again this year, and the first-term Democrat ultimately advanced the only prison health care reform to survive legislative negotiations this session. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill into law this April.
The Senate this year again blocked most of the proposals to improve healthcare in Mississippi’s prisons, which were driven in part by findings from an ongoing Mississippi Today investigation.
Rep. Becky Currie, the House Corrections chairwoman driving the push for reforms, said she will try again next session.
Balfour was convicted of capital murder in 1989 for shooting Southaven Police Lt. Billy Lance, who stopped her and her boyfriend after a convenience store robbery. She received a death sentence, but it was overturned years later because the Mississippi Supreme Court found her constitutional rights were violated during trial.
She accepted a plea agreement for a lesser charge and was resentenced, her attorney said.
Instead of getting the chance to rebuild her life, Balfour was released with a death sentence, said Pauline Rogers, executive director of the RECH Foundation, who has highlighed Balfour’s case.
“Susie didn’t just survive prison, she came out fighting,” Rogers said in an earlier statement. “She spent her final years demanding justice, not just for herself, but for the women still inside. She knew her time was limited, but her courage was limitless.”
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British jurist William Blackstone is cited with establishing the principle dating back to the 1700s that it is better for 10 guilty people to go free than one innocent person be incarcerated.
That principle continues to be cited and debated. The debate even questions what would be the appropriate number of guilty people going free opposed to one innocent person suffering a conviction and punishment.
A version of that principle also is at the center of a national debate about voting.
Some politicians, led by Republican President Donald Trump, and backed by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, contend that the federal Congress should impose national voting standards that would reduce the chances of election fraud.
Other politicians, primarily Democrats, say instances of voting fraud are rare, and studies seem to support that argument, while changes proposed by Trump could make it difficult for eligible voters to cast a ballot.
Hence, the argument seems to be whether preventing what appears to be a few instances of voter fraud is more important than election access. How many people should be denied or hindered in their right to vote to prevent rare occurrences of voter fraud?
Mississippi politicians have a long – and sometimes sordid – history of siding with the argument that preventing voter fraud is more important than ensuring easy voter access.
Even today, it is more difficult to vote by mail in Mississippi than in any state in the nation. In many cases, people voting by mail must have their signature notarized at two steps in the process.
Other states have found what appears to be a more efficient and user friendly way to vote by mail while still ensuring voter security.
In many states, for instance, people voting by mail must provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or a state-issued voter identification number on the ballot. In other states, ballots received in the mail undergo an intense signature verification process, and importantly, normally there are election observers from the political parties who can challenge the ballots.
For decades, Republicans in Mississippi sought a voter identification requirement. Democrats, particularly Black Democrats, tried to block the efforts, arguing older African Americans who were denied the right to vote, would view a voter identification requirement as a return to the old days of Jim Crow.
Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature were offered a compromise that elderly voters – born before a certain date – would be exempt from having an identification to vote. Even though that provision ultimately would have led to a time when all people would have had to show an ID to vote, Republicans rejected the proposal and instead placed on the ballot a citizen-sponsored initiative requiring people to have a government-issued photo identification to vote.
That measure overwhelmingly passed in 2011.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann presides over the Senate in a special legislative session at the Capitol in Jackson on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Credit: Richard Lake/Mississippi Today
Despite the argument that a requirement of a government-issued photo ID would restrict election access, it could be argued this was an instance when Mississippi politicians made efforts to ensure people were not denied their rights.
Then Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who now serves as lieutenant governor, was charged with enacting the new voting requirement. To his credit, Hosemann took his job seriously and developed a plan to ensure all Mississippians had relatively easy access to a government ID and ensured multiple types of identification could be presented to vote.
For instance, it was determined that in Mississippi a student identification could be presented to vote. Texas, on the other hand, prevents student IDs from being used to vote, but allows gun licenses to be used.
The Texas law faced legal challenges. Hosemann likes to brag that the Mississippi law was not even challenged in court.
President Trump wants to greatly limit voting by mail while requiring an identification to vote.
The fact of the matter is that most states – 36 – require an identification to vote. And even the president’s home state of Florida allows voting by mail – a process he often takes advantage of by voting by mail while he rails against it
So, perhaps the question is whether voter security is more important than ballot access for some people but not for others?
That like, Blackstone’s original premise, is an age-old debate.
