OurTupelo

In one instance on “Always Right,” the podcast that Steven Hugley co-hosted, he gagged at a photo of Jamie Lee Henry, the first openly trans active-duty military officer who was charged last year with providing confidential medical records to an FBI agent posing as Russian intelligence. 

“I do take a little joy in the fact that it’s the first openly trans person, I’m not even gonna lie,” Hugley said to his co-host, Jeff Dotson, in a clip captioned “Man With No Loyalty to His Genitals Also Has No Loyalty to His Country.”

“And oh man, that picture, it’s haunting. Like, oh, I’m going to see that in my nightmares,” he said, and gagged again.

Hugley’s June 29 Facebook post celebrating his new role, made the day before it was announced internally, caught the eye of Jonathan Szot, a library assistant at Delta State who has helped organize on-campus Pride events. Szot, whose pronouns are they/ them, had known Hugley ever since they were in a music fraternity in undergrad at Delta State. 

That day, Szot helped put together a Google Drive of recordings of Hugley’s podcast, which they reported to the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator. 

“Imagine you’re an 18-year-old band kid, probably one of the queerer groups in Mississippi — not to stereotype the whole group but a lot of band kids end up somewhere in that alphabet —  and now you’re going to college and you’re like ‘I’m gonna be free for once’ and you wind up with this,” Szot said.

Now, they’re calling on the university to rescind Hugley’s hiring. Hugley and Dotson have not uploaded a new episode since March, but Szot said they are concerned Hugley’s beliefs could show up in the classroom. 

“If Steven wants to govern his own life by those rules, fine by me. It doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t bother me,” Szot said. “But he should not tell our students how they should behave, and based on his own podcast, I do not feel confident in his ability to separate his role as an educator in a university and as an evangelist.” 

What’s at stake for Szot goes beyond Hugley’s comments; they say the university’s action or inaction is a litmus test. With support from the prior administration, the LGBTQ community has grown at Delta State despite backlash from some locals in Cleveland, the small town in the Mississippi Delta that plays host to the university. Will the new president, Daniel Ennis, make inclusivity a priority too ?

“If they don’t address his views — his outspoken, public views — in some way, then yeah, it definitely will feel like a step back,” Szot said.  

Delta State declined to comment for this story or to say what steps, if any, the administration plans to take to ensure future band students feel safe training under Hugley. The university also did not confirm if Dotson, who used to work in the registrar’s office, is still employed at Delta State. 

Experts who study civil liberties in higher education told Mississippi Today that even though Hugley hosted his podcast as a private citizen, the university could still condemn his speech. 

Hugley told a Mississippi Today reporter on Tuesday that he could not talk for long because he was arriving at a recruitment event for the band. He added that he had not heard anything from the university. Shortly after, he locked his Twitter account. All the videos on the podcast’s YouTube channel, which has five subscribers, were deleted.

The next day, Hugley declined to comment or provide additional context for his statements on the show. His co-host, Dotson, did not return a request for comment, but in the first episode, he articulated the premise of the show: “We felt that our opinions were just too important to keep them to ourselves — that, and our wives got tired of listening to us.” 

“We’re still reading the tea leaves in his every gesture and mannerism,” Szot said. “A lot of the staff feels fairly optimistic about him. He seems like one of us. We’re all giant nerds.” 

It’s unclear when university officials first learned about Hugley’s podcast. Last week, the provost, Andy Novobilski, emailed Szot’s superior to confirm “that the ‘steve’ on the Steve And Jeff podcast is actually Steve Hugley,” according to a copy of the email. 

The interim chair of the music department, Kent Wessinger, couldn’t say if he knew about the podcast before interviewing Hugley for the interim band director position earlier this year. 

“There was so much going on in that moment, I don’t really recall,” Wessinger said.

Wessinger added that Hugley, who graduated from Delta State in 2012, is a dedicated alumnus who is deeply involved in the community. Hugley is a minister at the Bolivar Church of Christ. His Twitter username is a reference to the university’s okra mascot. He’s on the alumni board of directors. 

And in his Facebook post, Hugley wrote that it had been his 12-year dream to become the band director — a passion that has gained him sympathy with Wessinger. 

“I happen to believe that he can rise above and he can do something significant, not for himself, and not just for the university, but for every student that comes here that wants to major in music and be in the band,” Wessinger said. “And so I’m not going to be the person that judges him for the positions that he takes, because everybody has positions that are adverse to other people.” 

This is more than a dream for Szot. They want to live in a safe community, but instead, they’re used to backlash. And in a small town where Szot knows everyone, politics are inherently personal.

In fall 2019, a university marquee advertising a drag show as “family friendly” was shared in a Facebook group. Outraged community members left comments suggesting they would protest the show, which was going to be held on the library steps. As a precautionary measure, Okra OUT, the on-campus organization that hosted the show, relocated inside the Jobe Auditorium. 

Szot and other Okra OUT members were heartened to see Bill LaForge, the university’s former president, and other upper-level administrators attend. But that doesn’t change the wider context in Mississippi, they said, where the state government is hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. 

“It’s the whole paradox of tolerance,” they said. “To have a tolerant society, you cannot tolerate the intolerant. That is simply how that works.” 

While Hugley’s statements on the podcast are protected free speech, experts who study civil liberties in higher education say that doesn’t prevent Delta State from taking steps to ensure queer students and faculty members feel safe on campus.  

“The First Amendment doesn’t stop the university from putting out its own statement criticizing what the band director said,” said Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The university can use its bully pulpit in that way, if it chooses to.” 

There’s precedent for this, Terr noted, most notably in 2019, when the University of Mississippi condemned social media posts by sociology professor James Thomas. While nationally, conservative professors often find themselves at odds with university administration for controversial speech, Terr said in Mississippi, the reverse tends to be true.

Kristen Shahverdian, a program coordinator with PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes free expression, said Delta State could also hire a second band instructor so that students who don’t want to interact with Hugley could still participate in band. 

“I would say what the university should do is not ignore this and address the community by reaching out to the communities most impacted by the speech first,” she said. 

Toward the end of episode 22, Hugley called Dylan Mulvaney, a trans female actress who received online abuse after she partnered with Bud Light on TikTok, a “flaccid man at best.” He added that since Mulvaney documented her transition online, she doesn’t “get to cry when people make comments and mean things about you.”

Then he addressed Dotson. 

“When you and I decided to start this podcast — we don’t care if we have one viewer, we don’t care if we have a million viewers — we knew we were putting ourselves out there and that ridicule comes with it,” he says. “That’s part of the game, you know? If you don’t like it, go somewhere else. You don’t get to be a public figure and then cry about people who disagree with you. It doesn’t work that way.”

In the most recent episode, Hugley refers to Dr. Rachel Levine, the United States assistant secretary for health and the first openly trans federal official, as “a dude.” He said transitioning — the process of changing one’s physical appearance to align with gender identity — should be illegal not just for trans kids, but for trans adults too. 

“If you do, not only are we gonna lock you up, we’re also gonna lock up the doctor,” Hugley said in reference to parents who seek gender-affirming care for trans kids, “and then we take it the next step.” 

Hugley doesn’t “hate” trans people either, he said in one episode. It is not “mean and evil” to misgender them, he said in another. 

“I’m concerned about these people,” he said. “I know that lying to them and feeding into their fantasy is not going to help them.” 

On the show, Hugley and Dotson watch multiple viral videos of religious leaders who support or are members of the LGBTQ+ community. In episode 21, they play a viral TikTok from an associate pastor in the United Methodist Church who preaches in drag, which prompts Dotson to say “every man in that building should have been talking over him and should have been pelting him with song books.” 

“We are so soft, we are so weak, we are so tolerant,” Dotson added.  

Another TikTok they watch, in a clip titled “Christians Need to Play Offense,” shows a progressive reverend wearing a rainbow stole and delivering a sermon that begins “God is gay, God is lesbian, God is trans.” 

“These people should be afraid to say these kinds of things in public,” Dotson said after referencing Biblical scripture. “Except, then we go back to the thing where there’s not really free speech in public, because we’re afraid to speak our mind, because we’re afraid to get fired. 

“They should be afraid to be stoned spouting this kind of nonsense,” Dotson said.

Hugley nodded.

“When all the institutions of power are on your side, we’re not punching down,” Hugley said. “The administration? They’re on your side. The media? They’re on your side. Hollywood and all entertainment? They’re on your side.” 

Dotson concludes that if he lives to see his “dream” of communism becoming illegal in the U.S., he wouldn’t care about the institutions.

“Oh, Jeff, that sounds like McCarthyism,” Hugley jokes, referencing the period in the 20th century when U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy accused hundreds of  government employees of being communist spies. 

Dotson replies, deadpan: “McCarthyism was good. It didn’t go far enough.”

“McCarthyism was highly underrated,” Hugley agrees. 

The post ‘If you don’t like it, go somewhere else’: New band director at Delta State mocked trans people, women and other groups on podcast appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Delbert’s charming Dorothy ad from so many years ago has morphed into something darker to deal with the current realities of modern politics.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Dilbert appeared first on Mississippi Today.

One year after air conditioning installation began at Mississippi’s oldest and largest prison, incarcerated people in the State Penitentiary at Parchman’s Unit 29 and other prisons are still without relief from sweltering heat as funding dictates when air conditioning can be installed. 

“You got to picture how hot it is. We’re in nothing but brick and steel,” Andrico Pegues, who is incarcerated in Unit 29, said by phone. “Everything outside is double in here.” 

This comes as the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency issued an extreme heat warning that will last through Friday. The heat index – how the combined air temperature and humidity feels to the human body – is expected to reach up to 115 degrees in the Delta, Jackson area and parts of south Mississippi. 

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain estimated in April that it would take a year and a half to bring air conditioning to Unit 29, parts of the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institute and other facilities. 

He said much of that work is connected to funding. Installation of 48 AC units to cover 75% of Parchman was done using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. 

“We’re doing everything humanly possible to protect both inmates and corrections officers and we’re using the same options people in the free world have who don’t have air conditioning or can’t afford air conditioning,” Cain said in a Tuesday statement. 

The department’s plan is to use industrial fans in housing units and give ice, ice water and electrolyte drinks to inmates and prison staff to provide relief from the heat, an MDOC spokesperson said. 

Pegues said those in Unit 29 have been told they will get ice coolers three times a day, but he said that doesn’t always happen. People can also use fans available for purchase from the commissary, but those can be expensive. 

A 2022 U.S. Department of Justice report about unconstitutional conditions at Parchman found the highest temperature recorded in Unit 29 was 145.1 degrees. Temperature logs showed temperatures over 100 degrees every day during a period of reported complaints and during two-thirds of all the dates logged, according to the report.

Nicole Montagano, Pegues’s fiance, has connected with people who also have loved ones in the state’s prisons through the group Mississippi Prison Reform Advocates. 

“Not having air conditioning isn’t inhumane, but the inability to regulate temperature is,” she said. 

Extreme heat can have health consequences. 

Those with chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, mental illness, poor blood circulation and obesity are more vulnerable to extreme heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some medications and old age can also affect a person’s ability to regulate their body temperature. 

If untreated, heat related illnesses can result in potentially fatal conditions such as heat stroke and dehydration, according to the CDC. Heat stroke can occur when internal body temperature reaches 106 degrees.

A report by the Prison Policy Initiative found associations between the number of prison deaths following days of high temperatures during the summer. In the South, there was a 1.3% increase in the number of deaths in state prisons as a result of exposure to extreme days of heat between 2001 and 2019. 

Within a week’s span in 2020, five inmates were killed during a string of violent outbreaks at Unit 29 and other MDOC facilities. Gov. Tate Reeves vowed in his first State of the State to close the entire unit. 

But at least half of Unit 29’s 12 buildings have remained open, and Cain said in a previous interview that remaining buildings have been renovated and are now being used for housing. Because some buildings were closed, inmates were moved to other facilities.

Pegues, who has been at Unit 29 since November, was sent there from another facility due to a rules violation. He looks forward to leaving within the coming weeks. He’s serving an 18-year sentence for armed robbery and will be eligible for parole in 2027, according to Montagano.

During hot days in Unit 29, Pegues feels irritable and said the heat affects him mentally, too. There’s also the smell of sweat and body odor, especially if people aren’t able to take frequent showers. 

There have already been 100-degree days in Unit 29, he said, and on one of those days he remembers seeing the temperature high on the television. 

 “No way, we’re going to die in here,” Pegues recalls thinking. 

The post A year after air conditioning came to Parchman, most of Mississippi’s prisons are still without relief from the heat appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The hospital crisis has emerged as the state’s most dire problem. Yet with Mississippi’s major statewide primary election less than three weeks away, only one candidate for an office that could do anything about it is even acknowledging its existence.

Gov. Tate Reeves, who faces two Republican primary opponents on Aug. 6, would rather voters think about problems that apparently don’t exist in Mississippi like trans athletes and the influence of national liberals on our state’s policies — not the fact that dozens of hospitals are on the brink of closure.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Republican primary challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel appear most focused on out-flanking each other on the right and arguing over who is the truer conservative Republican. Never mind the fact that at least 200,000 working Mississippians cannot afford doctor visits and dying hospitals are underwater having to cover those bills.

Speaker of the House Philip Gunn isn’t running for reelection and has been missing in action the past few weeks. And speaker heir apparent Rep. Jason White, who does have a Republican primary challenger for his House seat early next month, has been a complete non-factor in the 2023 cycle.

Mississippi’s hospital system is failing, and as campaigns really begin to share their ideas and solutions with voters, just one single candidate for high office, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, has focused meaningful attention on the crisis.

Right now, no Mississippi hospital — large or small, urban or rural, private or public — is immune from potentially debilitating financial concerns. Hospital leaders are having to make life-changing decisions about how they can balance their budgets. They’ve slashed health care services, laid off staff or even closed doors permanently just to make ends meet.

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney put it bluntly a couple weeks ago on a radio program: “No one is knocking it out of the park right now. We have a spectrum of hospitals that literally see their drop-dead date ahead of them if something does not happen.”

Edney, in fact, has been desperately working to sound this alarm for months now, telling the State Board of Health in November 2022 that the crisis was worsening “and no one is coming to the rescue.” 

Boy, was that an accurate prophecy. Below are just a few of Mississippi Today’s headlines since Edney issued that warning:

• Vicksburg hospital, evicted by Merit Health, is now closed
• Jackson area’s only inpatient hospice facility closes
• St. Dominic lays off 5.5% of its workforce, halts mental health services
• Health care giant with dozens of facilities in Mississippi announces layoffs
• Memorial Hospital in Gulfport lays off nearly 100 employees
• North Mississippi health system announces layoffs
• In last ditch effort to stay open, Holly Springs hospital ends inpatient care
• ‘The funding just isn’t there’: Yazoo health department reopens just two days a week
• Delta hospital, once projected to close within 6 months, will stay open until next year
• ‘Leaving for greener pastures’: Mississippi’s nurse vacancy rates are at their highest in at least a decade
• Hospitals thought they’d get $450M in extra money this year. They’re actually getting much less.
• A quarter of Mississippi’s rural hospitals could close within three years, report shows

The proverbial walls are closing in on Mississippians. Emergency rooms across the state are constantly full with hours-long wait times. Cash-strapped health care systems are struggling to recruit and retain nurses and doctors, meaning fewer beds are available for people who need them. Ambulance services are struggling to meet demand and respond quickly when dispatched because of hospital bed backups.

So why aren’t our state’s best positioned leaders even mentioning the crisis — let alone offering solutions to it — on the 2023 campaign trail? Because it would be incredibly difficult for them to defend their past inaction on the crisis, which they’ve been warned about over and over and over again.

For several years, both private sector and government appointed health care experts have all but begged Mississippi’s elected officials to do something — anything — to slow the system’s bleeding.

The experts have even presented the politicians with a readymade solution to the hospital crisis: Medicaid expansion. Expansion — not a cure-all fix, but by all accounts a major assist — would bring an estimated $1.61 billion to the state’s health care system in year one. In year two, it would garner $1.64 billion. Projected out over several years, new revenue to the state would never fall below $1 billion per year. In new jobs and revenue created, several studies show, the policy would more than cover the marginal cost the state would have to pay to draw down the billions in federal funds.

READ MORE: FAQ: What is Medicaid expansion, really?

The politicians, however, have leaned on rosy, non-scientific anecdotes or weak, politically charged talking points to ignore the pleas to pass expansion or other programs that would help.

Reeves, the leader of the state’s opposition to Medicaid expansion for more than 10 years, has not mentioned the hospital crisis so far on the 2023 campaign trail without being prompted by reporters. He could not be more dug in on his opposition to expansion.

Meanwhile, his opponent Presley is devoting campaign resources on a clear pitch for expansion as a solution to the hospital crisis. Given Medicaid expansion’s broad popularity with Mississippi voters on top of its other benefits, this focus couldn’t have been a tough decision for Presley.

“Tate Reeves is fiddling while the health care system in Mississippi burns to the ground,” Presley told Mississippi Today earlier this month. “… There are ways to look at the Arkansas model or the Indiana model or models in other states in which we get something done on (Medicaid expansion).” 

READ MORE: Former UM chancellor: Gov. Tate Reeves privately acknowledged Medicaid expansion benefits

But then there are the others. Considering the questions their newfound focus on the crisis would raise, the silence from so many top 2023 candidates shouldn’t be all that surprising. 

How can these leaders who have ignored the expert cries for years defend leaving at least $10 billion on the table since 2013, when Medicaid expansion was phased in? What about the additional $1.5 billion in each coming year that would help hospitals keep services going and doors open?

How would Hosemann, who at times has expressed openness to some version of expansion, answer questions about why he hasn’t worked in his last four years of immense power to at least start an earnest legislative debate? If he’s worried about not being conservative enough, he should ask the 15 Republican-dominated states that have already expanded how well their health care economies are doing. How on earth would McDaniel justify calling a program that would send billions directly to health care providers “an expansion of the welfare state?”

How would Gunn or White explain to their constituents that they have been sitting on their hands in Jackson on this issue?

And how would Reeves, a self-proclaimed “numbers guy” who focuses so much of his time boasting how “hot” the Mississippi economy is, explain why he’s rejecting a 10-to-1 return on state investment that would stand to save thousands of jobs and create new ones across the state? How is he justifying the hospital crisis when pitching business leaders who may want to move their companies to the state?

At least one major Mississippi hospital leader is apparently asking the same question of him.

“We don’t understand why Tate Reeves doesn’t understand why he needs a healthy workforce,” Delta Health Systems CEO Iris Stacker said just last week while publicly criticizing the governor for refusing to expand Medicaid. 

As the hospital crisis worsens and we search for answers to these questions and more, just look at the past records of these leaders. There, you’ll find all the answers you need. 

READ MORE: Mississippi leaving more than $1 billion per year on table by rejecting Medicaid expansion

The post Why so many top candidates are ignoring Mississippi’s worsening hospital crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Nearly 9,500 Mississippians will see their student loans automatically discharged following changes made by the U.S. Department of Education to its income-driven repayment program — a small portion of the more than 439,000 Mississippians who hold student loan debt. 

The move, which President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled last year, comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down his student loan forgiveness plan. The administration’s changes to the income-driven repayment program are related but ultimately separate from that plan and have not yet led to court challenges. 

The changes are an attempt to rectify past issues with the program, the administration said, that led to borrowers not receiving the loan forgiveness that they should have. 

“I have long said that college should be a ticket to the middle class, not a burden that weighs down on families for decades,” Biden said in a statement. “My Administration is delivering on that commitment.” 

Income-driven repayment plans peg a borrower’s monthly payment to a percentage of their income for a period of 20 or 25 years, at which point the leftover balance is forgiven. 

Despite this plan being used by more than 8 million Americans, relatively few have received forgiveness due to mistakes by loan services in tracking errors, according to the New York Times. 

Loan services were also routinely steering low-income borrowers away from income-driven repayment plans and into forbearance, which allowed interest to accumulate. That was one of the issues at stake in the settlement with Navient, which no longer services student loans, that some Misssissippians qualified for last year. 

For the Mississippans who qualify, the rub is that loan forgiveness in this state is counted as taxable income. Borrowers in Mississippi could be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, depending on the amount of their leftover balance. 

A bill was introduced this legislative session to prevent that from happening, but it died in committee. 

READ MORE: ‘Mississippi plans to tax student debt relief. But Paycheck Protection Program loans are tax exempt.’ 

The post Nearly 9,500 Mississippians eligible for loan forgiveness under new Biden administration plan appeared first on Mississippi Today.

If no news is good news, then all the news is good at SEC Football Media Days, where hundreds of media types gather to hear much ado about very little. The Clevelands discuss what’s going on this week in Nashville where SEC football coaches aren’t about to give away any top secrets. They could use a little Steve Spurrier to pump things up this week. Also, The Open (formerly known as the British Open) begins Thursday and Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are the favorites.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: If these are the Dog Days of Summer, it must be time for SEC Media Days. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves’ boast on social media that Mississippi’s per capita personal income increased by about $8,700 during his tenure as governor leaves out some key facts.

For instance, considerations not addressed by the Republican governor who is running for reelection this year against Democrat Brandon Presley include:

• What happened to per capita personal income in other states during that time period?
• And where does Mississippi now rank among the states in per capita income after the $8,700 jump?

First thing’s first: Mississippi still ranks last in per capita income among the 50 states.

According to research compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, as of calendar year 2022, Mississippi’s per capita income of $46,248 per year was last among the 50 states. West Virginia was next-to-last at $49,248.

Mississippi has been last and trying to catch West Virginia since at least 1990, according to the St. Louis Fed. Mississippi has gotten close to surpassing West Virginia at times but has never gotten over the hump.

And the governor can rightfully say the cost of living is less in Mississippi than in some other states.

But what the governor said is, “Since 2019, we’ve raised per capita personal income in Mississippi by approximately $8,700. That’s an over 22% raise for Mississippians so they can better support their families. Mississippi has momentum and we’re growing stronger every day.”

Using numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Mississippi’s per capita personal income has increased $8,348 since 2018. The income growth in Mississippi during that time period is better than only West Virginia, though the Mountain State’s per capita income, as stated above, still bests Mississippi.

According to data compiled by the nonprofit State Science & Technology Institute using the Bureau of Economic Analysis information, the percent increase in per capita income during the 2018-2022 time period for Mississippi was 22.03%, which was actually a little above the national average of 21.64%.

In general, though, Mississippi was near the middle in terms of its percentage increase in income.

The SSTI study said, “Colorado had the largest jump at 26.88%, followed by Utah (26.85%), Idaho (26.19%), South Dakota (26.15%) and California (25.74%). On the other hand, Alaska (15.60%), Delaware (16.45%), Connecticut (16.52%) and Maryland (16.76%) experienced the smallest percentage changes.”

The study goes on to say that based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, $1,000 had the same buying power in January 2018 as $1,1944.40 in December 2022 — “a 19.94% difference, which certainly makes these large growths in personal income seem less impressive.”

The post Governor’s boast on Mississippi per capita income leaves out key fact: We’re still last. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Kraken! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

“Something Ain’t Right” produced by Audible retells the story of the Stringer family and was recorded by father Roger and son Zac. Roger calls the 2011 gun death of his younger son, Justin, as “The Happening” that changed the course of the family’s life. 

“Everything that needed to come out has come out,” Zac, who is now 27, said in an interview.

Roger said telling the story in his own voice was therapeutic. 

He grew up hunting and handling guns and passed that down to his sons. That changed June 11, 2011, when Justin died from a gunshot at the age of 12. Fifteen-year-old Zac said the trigger of his Remington Model 700 rifle went off on its own, but prosecutors, community members and his father didn’t believe that was possible. 

“I remember seeing the impact and as the rifle recoiled and it fell out of my hands, and I was just standing there numb,” Zac said in the audio memoir. “I knew immediately he’s dead. Like he’s dead, his head is gone … You can’t fix a catastrophic headwound like that.” 

At 16, Zac was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to serve 10 years in prison with 10 years probation. Because of his age, he was incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility’s Youth Offender Unit. As an adult, Zac went to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. 

He and his father had to rebuild their relationship, even as Roger didn’t believe Zac, who maintained that the shooting was accidental and the gun shot on its own. 

He found news coverage, YouTube videos and lawsuits alleging Remington manufactured faulty triggers that went off on their own. There was an April 2014 recall of the company’s Model 700 and Model Seven rifles with XMP triggers that “could, under certain circumstances, unintentionally discharge.” 

“I feel like Remington and its string pullers have hidden behind that to avoid accountability for pushing a defective product onto the public,” Roger said in the audio memoir.

Recovering this information and connecting with other families who lost children to Remington firearms with faulty triggers helped Roger believe Zac and fight to prove that. They hired an attorney to appeal Zac’s case and tried to track down a firearms expert who would challenge the gun manufacturer and give an affidavit about defective triggers and spontaneous shooting. 

“All I want is the truth,” Roger said in an interview. “That’s all we’ve ever wanted.”

Zac was released from prison in October 2016 after serving about half of his sentence due to good behavior. 

In 2018, the Stringers filed a federal lawsuit against Remington that made it to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, but in November 2022 the suit was denied due to time limitations. 

Remington filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and in 2020, which was the year the company closed. Roger said he is watching if its players come back and begin manufacturing firearms again. 

With Zac out of prison and Remington gone, the family’s focus has been overturning Zac’s conviction. 

In 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted him permission to return to the Marion County Circuit Court to ask for a new trial. 

This month, there was an examination of the gun that killed Justin at the State Crime Lab. From there, the next step is an evidentiary hearing, which could lead to a new trial where new evidence, such as the Remington recall, can be introduced, the Stringers said. 

“It would be like a vindication,” Zac said about overturning his conviction. 

That could also remove barriers in employment and the ability to own a firearm placed on Zac. He also sees the impact his conviction has in his relationships, like when he tells people for the first time that he has been in prison. 

Even if that conviction stands, Zac said he is content and that life is going well. Regardless of outcome, that may not change the view of community and family members who still believe he murdered his brother. 

Roger said getting to the truth of what happened to Justin and helping Zac overturn his conviction are connected. He sees it as a fight for both of his sons, and Roger thinks Justin would be proud. 

“The pain we’ve endured has been the fuel that has driven us to do what we’ve done,” he said. 

This isn’t the first time Roger and Zac have shared their family’s story. It doesn’t get easier to talk about Justin’s death and Zac’s incarceration, but the men said they do it to help others. 

For Roger, he wants people to be aware that there are still Remington triggers out there in the world and to help keep other families safe. 

Zac said through his story, he can share the goodness and love of the Lord. He was facing a life sentence at the age of 15, and by the grace of God, he was able to find redemption. 

“I came to understand how much this event forged me,” he said. 

Zac said working on the Audible memoir was a labor of love, which is why he’s seeking peace and a break from retelling the story again. 

Roger said his son is now getting a chance to grow up because he didn’t get to while in prison. They talk about everything and are growing closer, even as Roger sees Zac becoming more independent and self-sufficient. 

After having mental health struggles, Zac got on a better path that included a college education, spiritual support and psychological support. 

He was the first convicted felon to be admitted to William Carey University in Hattiesburg, where he graduated last year with a major in history and minor in biology. 

Zac is now working in the information technology field, which he found while attending his university. He wants to get certified in IT and maybe pursue a master’s degree. 

In the future, Zac looks forward to owning his own home, having his own family and potentially moving out of state. 

Roger’s plan is to work for a couple more years building power lines and then retire, but he plans to seek another job or find a way to stay busy. 

At home, he enjoys gardening and has been able to grow sweet corn and tomatoes in the backyard and sunflowers in a field that leads up to his house. 

The field of sunflowers attracts doves and has been the site of fall dove hunts by family and friends. Roger said the field was Justin’s idea and he first planted sunflowers the year his son died. He has continued to do it each year in Justin’s memory. 

In the mornings, he enjoys going to the field with a cup of coffee and watching the birds. 

The post One son killed, the other imprisoned for manslaughter, but was the real villain in the Columbia family’s tragedy a faulty Remington rifle trigger? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Story behind the cartoon.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Prying Eyes appeared first on Mississippi Today.