When House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, announced he would create a special commission after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, he said the group would develop “Next Steps for Life.”
Nearly six months later, those next steps remain unclear. The Speaker’s “Commission on Life” has identified no concrete measures or specific policy proposals, several members told Mississippi Today.
The legislative session begins in 19 days.
“We have not hammered out anything as far as I have seen for this legislative session as of yet,” said Rep. Otis Anthony, D-Sunflower, who said the commission had held about eight meetings.
The meetings have taken place entirely in private. Gunn told members he didn’t want the commission to become a “political football,” Anthony said. Members who spoke with Mississippi Today said they could not share the names of the people they have spoken to during their meetings.
They said Mississippi Today should contact Gunn’s office for that information, but his communications director Emily Simmons did not respond to a question asking who had met with the commission.
“The Speaker’s Commission is continuing its work, and we will update you once the policy recommendations are finalized,” she told Mississippi Today.
Members who spoke with Mississippi Today said they were divided into subgroups, like faith-based efforts and women’s health issues. They heard from numerous pastors as well as doctors.
Other members of the committee contacted by Mississippi Today did not respond to texts, phone calls or emails.
“In the coming weeks, we will have legislation that addresses a lot of those issues,” said Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg. “And at that time, we’ll really take it from there.”
She declined to answer other questions.
The opacity around the commission means it’s not clear what measures will have the support of the speaker when it comes to expanding assistance for moms and families in the next session, other than expanding the tax credit for crisis pregnancy centers from $3.5 million to $10 million. The centers provide pregnancy tests and some direct assistance like formula and diapers, but are not regulated by the state Department of Health and do not offer health care services.
Anthony said the group had discussed the importance of improving access to child care, particularly through faith-based organizations.
“Those in the faith-based community gotta step up to the plate now and really put your money where your mouth is,” Anthony said. “How can we maybe look at helping those mothers who may need those childcare services so they can continue to work or so they won’t lose their job?”
On the day the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing Mississippi’s near-total ban on abortion to take effect, Gunn announced he would create the commission. The Health Department estimates the ruling could result in an additional 5,000 births each year– a 14% increase in a state that has the country’s highest rates of infant mortality, preterm births and low birth weight babies.
“With love for children and the women who bear them, we move forward to secure strong and lasting legal protections and cultural support for life, and a vibrant network of abortion alternatives,” he wrote on Twitter.
Gunn is a vocal opponent of abortion rights. After the ruling in Dobbs, he told reporters that a 12-year-old molested by a relative should carry the baby to term.
“So that 12-year-old child molested by her family members should carry that pregnancy to term?” Daily Journal reporter Taylor Vance asked at a press conference.
“That is my personal belief,” Gunn said. “I believe life begins at conception.”
It took almost three months for Gunn to name the members of the commission. In a press release at the time, Gunn said the group would focus on encouraging churches, the private sector and nonprofits to “step forward to answer the need.”
The release said the members, who had already been working, wanted to develop plans to engage churches, expand assistance to pregnancy resource centers, expand access to adoption, create jobs for mothers, and improve foster care and child support assistance.
It’s also unclear how much Gunn and Republican colleagues in both chambers will prioritize measures designed to further restrict abortion. Abortion is almost completely banned in Mississippi thanks to a law that prohibits the use of “any instrument, medicine, drug or any other substance” to end the pregnancy of a woman who is known to be pregnant. That language clearly applies to medication abortion.
But some Republicans have said they want to see stricter controls on medication abortion, especially because advocates around the country and world have scaled up their efforts to provide access to abortion pills through the mail.
The approach of the House Commission on Life stands in stark contrast to that of the Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families.
The Senate committee, led by Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, held public hearings over four days in September and October. They heard from state and national policy analysts, Mississippi obstetricians and pediatricians and state agency heads. Their hearings focused on maternal and child health care; adoption, foster care and child support; childcare availability and early intervention for kids with special needs. They’re heading into the session with a list of policy priorities.
One of the Senate study committee’s top policy recommendations, Boyd told Mississippi Today, will be extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months, which Gunn blocked from coming to a vote in the House last session. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney and University of Mississippi Medical Center Vice Chancellor Dr. LouAnn Woodward endorsed postpartum Medicaid extension in their presentations to the committee.
Gunn remains opposed to the measure, which would cost the state about $7 million annually – less than the cost of his proposed tax credit for crisis pregnancy centers.
And his Commission on Life has not spent much time discussing it.
“Yes, it came up,” Anthony said of extending postpartum Medicaid, “but that was kind of all it did.”
The members who spoke with Mississippi Today praised the speaker’s closed-door approach and his input during meetings.
“The speaker made it clear that he did not want to try to grandstand,” said Rep. Cedric Burnett, D-Tunica. “If we can do something to help, and we’ve figured out what to do, just do it. So that’s pretty much it. It’s not to draw any attention or anything like that.”
“Just by being there, seeing the questions that he asks the ministers – you can tell, if there is something that can help, he wants to do that,” Burnett said.
The members of the Speaker’s Commission are: Reps. Otis Anthony, D-Sunflower; Cedric Burnett, D-Tunica; Angela Cockerham, I-Amite; Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi; Jill Ford, R-Madison; Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg; Dana Underwood McLean, R-Columbus; Sam Mims, R-McComb; and Lee Yancey, R-Brandon.
The former welfare agency official who brought information about corruption to then-Gov. Phil Bryant — breaking open a massive public fraud case that eventually ensnared NFL legend Brett Favre — is now one of the scandal’s biggest culprits, according to the state.
“‘Shot himself in the foot’ is a great way to phrase it,” said Logan Reeves, spokesperson for the state auditor’s office, which originally investigated the case.
State-employed attorney Jacob Black is facing allegations that he himself participated in the illegal welfare scheme, that he racially discriminated against an employee under him, and that blowing the proverbial whistle was for his own benefit.
“He was just always bragging how he was the whistleblower,” Kristie Greer-Ellis, former regional director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, said during a court deposition earlier this year, “that he was going to be the next executive director and that he was going to be the one who makes all of the changes and that nobody was to … go through anybody but directly to him.”
Greer-Ellis also alleged Black was hostile towards Black women — an allegation he denies — to the point that when Black women working for the agency needed him to address something, they would enlist a white colleague instead. This is the basis of an ongoing race discrimination lawsuit that former MDHS deputy administrator Dana Kidd is bringing against the agency.
Black did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Black, now a staff officer at the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, joined the executive staff at the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2015, just before John Davis became director. Davis pleaded guilty in September to a combined 20 state and federal counts of fraud, conspiracy, or theft.
Since arrests in 2020, officials have pegged Davis and politically connected educator Nancy New, who founded a nonprofit that received tens of millions in welfare funds to run a program called Families First for Mississippi, as the main architects of the scandal. New has also pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud. Forensic auditors say they and others stole or misspent at least $77 million.
But as legal counsel, Black was instrumental in crafting many of the grants in question to appear to fit within the guidelines of different federal programs the agency administers, including the welfare program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. If Davis was the architect, according to the auditor’s findings, Black was the engineer.
Black once wrote in an email to Nancy New’s son Zach New, assistant director for the nonprofit, that if they wanted to construct a building with TANF, or welfare funds, it shouldn’t take receipts from the contractors because that “seems to get really close to showing that you all are controlling the Brick and Mortar process which TANF has a strict prohibition against; however, if you have worked with your attorney, I have no issues with [it] because this is a lease that you will be a party to not MDHS.”
He recommended adding a clause that would “be vague enough to not tie you directly to the construction.”
In this email, Black was discussing a palliative care facility for medically fragile children that Nancy New and then-Mississippi first lady Deborah Bryant were working to build, a project that eventually fell apart.
But MDHS, New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, and the University of Southern Mississippi used this same legal analysis when crafting a $5 million lease agreement to build a new volleyball stadium at the school, according to an amended civil complaint MDHS recently filed to recoup misspent welfare funds.
“Jacob Black, then-Deputy Administrator of MDHS, and Garrig Shields, then-Deputy Executive Director of MDHS, provided substantial assistance to the co-conspirators by advising on how to circumvent the TANF prohibition,” the complaint alleges. “… Black provided substantial assistance to John Davis, Nancy New, Zachary New, and MCEC by providing the template for the sham USM Athletic Foundation Sublease as a means of fraudulently disguising the true nature of the payments made to the USM Athletic Foundation.”
Jacob Black speaks outside the Capitol in 2019 when he was deputy administrator of programs for the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
The amended complaint alleges for the first time in court that Black and Shields met with USM athletics officials and university administrators in mid-2017 and “advised at this meeting that the source of the funds would be TANF funds and that the sublease would be with MCEC because MDHS ‘can’t directly fund a building project.’”
MDHS originally told Mississippi Today in February of 2020, during a two-month long stretch in which Black was interim director of the agency, that MDHS officials had no knowledge of any deal related to the volleyball stadium.
Shortly after the 2017 meeting, Shields left MDHS to work for New’s nonprofit, then went into private practice with another attorney working under the Families First program, Laura Goodson. Shields has not returned Mississippi Today’s request for comment.
The complaint said Black and Shields are both jointly liable, along with several others, for damages totaling nearly $6.9 million and $6.7 million, respectively. These are civil charges, but Zach New pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of defrauding the government because of the sham USM lease agreement.
Whether or not he intended to, Black was instrumental in exposing this and other alleged fraud schemes he’s now accused of perpetuating.
Black, who was second in command at MDHS, and a few of his colleagues began gathering evidence about his boss’ potential corruption in the last months of Davis’ tenure. They were focused on Davis’ relationship with a professional wrestler named Brett DiBiase, whom Davis had hired and then showered with lucrative welfare contracts, and his brother Teddy DiBiase Jr., who appeared to be going into business with Davis. At this time, the welfare agency operated under a nebulous structure in which public and private ventures were commingled and much of the federal spending happened outside public sight and without proper documentation.
Even for some on the inside, it was a challenge to discern or document exactly what was going on at the agency and the private welfare delivery system called Families First for Mississippi, according to several interviews with employees of the state agency and nonprofit.
“When you started publishing all of this stuff, that’s when a lot of us found out what was going on,” Dana Kidd, who ran the division TANF is housed under during the scandal, told Mississippi Today in a recent interview. “It wasn’t until you started publishing stuff that we found out what was going on. We had no clue.”
It’s unclear what Black knew about the overarching fraud scheme polluting the agency, though emails and texts show he played a critical role in keeping the funds flowing.
But the fraud tip he took to Bryant was a relatively small discovery. Under the contract Davis awarded to Brett DiBiase’s company, the wrestler was using a P.O. Box that belonged to Davis. The abnormality suggested Davis might be accepting a kickback, though prosecutors have never presented evidence to that effect. Instead, the men explained that DiBiase was using his boss’ P.O. Box because he was having marital problems and wanted to hide the earnings from his wife.
In June of 2019, while Davis, Nancy New, Ted DiBiase Jr., Kidd and others were in D.C., where Davis was testifying before Congress about the federal food assistance program, Black took the information to Bryant’s office.
Bryant turned the information over to State Auditor Shad White, Bryant’s former campaign manager and the rising politician Bryant appointed to fill a vacant state auditor seat in 2018. White’s office began investigating Davis and Brett DiBiase, and within days, Bryant forced Davis to retire.
“Everything changed when Mr. Davis left,” Greer-Ellis, former regional director, said in her deposition. “I mean, immediately Jacob went on, in my personal opinion, an attack, like he – everything was done deliberately, and he was not ashamed about anything. He even mentioned himself being the whistleblower and all that. He was just outright just flamboyant with his stuff.”
Auditor White has since credited Bryant — not Black — as the whistleblower of the case, though the tip would eventually lead investigators to an alleged illegal scheme to funnel welfare money to a pharmaceutical company connected to Bryant. Bryant denies knowing the company, Prevacus, had received public funds, though texts show Favre and Bryant discussed the project at length and that Favre even told the governor when it began receiving money from the state. The texts also show Bryant continued to lobby for the company and agreed to accept a stock agreement after leaving office. These texts were not revealed until Mississippi Today published them in April, more than two years after investigators collected them.
Favre, Prevacus, and its founder, Jake Vanlandingham, are all named in the ongoing MDHS civil suit, but Bryant is not.
The auditor’s office maintains that Black is not the “whistleblower” because he did not take the information to an investigative body, as specified in the state’s whistleblower statute.
In May, after MDHS released a third forensic audit report revealing Black’s email about “brick and mortar,” the auditor’s office issued a $3.6 million demand for repayment on Black. He didn’t face official civil charges until he was added to the state’s lawsuit this month. As is true for most people named in the suit, including Favre, Black has not faced criminal charges related to the scandal.
Just a few days after MDHS added Black to the suit, a federal judge in Kidd’s separate racial discrimination case ruled that the allegations against Black were enough basis for the case against MDHS to move forward and go to trial.
“An employee who worked under Kidd testified that Mr. Black ‘had a problem with Black females’ and that he made clear that most employees he wanted to terminate were Black,” reads U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan’s recent order. “That same employee stated that Mr. Black would treat white employees more favorably than Black employees.”
Kidd brought the lawsuit against MDHS in April, alleging the agency discriminated against her on the basis of age, race, and disability when it forced her to retire in 2020. Kidd’s attorney is the prolific north Mississippi trial lawyer Jim Waide, who is also representing a separate defendant in the MDHS civil lawsuit, Austin Smith, Davis’ nephew.
Jacob Black, staff officer for the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, poses for a photo at the office in October of 2022. Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Division of Medicaid
The Mississippi Department of Human Services asked the court for a summary judgment. Jordan granted the state’s request related to the age and disability claims, effectively throwing them out, but said the race claim should move forward. When asked for a response, MDHS told Mississippi Today it does not comment on pending litigation.
Black denied the allegations of racial bias in his deposition, saying the one employee he has promoted in his time at Medicaid is a Black woman. Black also said Greer-Ellis and Kidd are “super close friends, so the validity of that testimony I would highly question.”
Kidd has apparent connections, personally and through husband Alvin Kidd, with other welfare employees or contractors caught up in the welfare probe. Alvin Kidd is friends with and played high school football with Marcus Dupree, a former star high school running back and one of the high-profile defendants in the civil lawsuit. Dupree received at least $371,000 in welfare funds, the complaint alleges. Nancy New’s nonprofit bought Dupree a horse ranch, Mississippi Today first uncovered in 2020, where he lives, according to the suit. Kidd said she didn’t know how Dupree got connected to Families First.
Dupree and Alvin Kidd also grew up with the father of Gregory “Latimer” Smith, the young MDHS procurement officer charged with fraud related to payments to Brett DiBiase. The Kidds have been close with Smith since he was a kid; Dana Kidd even helped him get the job at MDHS, she said. Smith’s case has since been referred through pre-trial diversion, a program that could keep the charge off his record.
Dana Kidd worked for the welfare agency for 30 years, starting out as an entry-level eligibility worker.
“This is not one of those employment cases where an employer fires an underperforming or heavily disciplined employee,” Judge Jordan wrote in his latest order. “By all accounts, Kidd was an excellent employee, consistently performed at a high level, and had an unblemished record.”
Greer-Ellis also speculated that Black may have wanted to get rid of Kidd because she “could have been easily the next person in line to be able to move the agency forward.”
“He wanted that executive director position so bad,” she said.
Kidd alleges in her lawsuit that in January of 2019, she became paralyzed due to a rare disorder and took a medical leave of absence from the department. “Black indicated that Plaintiff was not wanted at the agency because of her disability,” her complaint alleges.
When Kidd returned from medical leave in May of 2019, she alleges Black became more hostile towards her, eventually moving her from her post as deputy administrator in the state office to the Hinds County DHS office — an effective demotion. It was supposed to be temporary, but when current MDHS Director Bob Anderson became director in March of 2020, Kidd was still stationed there. Anderson decided to eliminate her position, forcing her to retire or be terminated in April of 2020. Black left the agency shortly after, starting his new job at Medicaid in June of 2020 in a lower position than he held at MDHS.
Kidd also alleges Black excluded her from meetings and generally ostracized her from the rest of the executive staff.
Black explained that Kidd was close to Davis, which is why he was keeping Kidd at bay during the internal investigation into their boss.
“We kept that investigation very close so we could make sure that we had an opportunity to finish that investigation and get everything reported with sufficient evidence without John finding out about it,” Black said in his deposition.
The State Board of Education has adopted new social studies standards that will be implemented in the fall of 2023.
Late last year, the Mississippi Department of Education was accused of removing civil rights content from the standards, which serve as the framework for social studies instruction for public schools. The accusations led to multiple meetings and conversations where the public aired their numerous frustrations with social studies education.
An update to the social studies standards was first presented to the State Board of Education in December 2021. The proposed changes removed many specific names, events and details in lieu of more broad descriptions. During the first public hearing in January 2022, education department officials walked back this change to the satisfaction of several groups present. Still, other people expressed concern that officials were adding critical race theory to the standards. MDE officials have repeatedly stated the theory is not taught in K-12 classrooms.
After releasing an updated version of the standards in September, the department held another public hearing, where advocates pushed for greater inclusion of the disability rights movement. In the written public comments, 120 people asked for greater inclusion of Sikhism in the elective minority studies standards. Changes were made to address both of these concerns in standards that were adopted on Thursday.
Wendy Clemons, associate superintendent of secondary education, told Mississippi Today the most substantial changes in the new standards are related to the flow of the standards for grades K-6, eliminating repetition and making sure that concepts are built upon one another. She said that in some cases the content itself did change to improve the overall flow, pointing to the sixth grade standards, but said that the changes were largely organizational.
Tammy Crosetti, curriculum director of secondary education, noted the comprehensive nature of the teacher review committee, which has 62 teachers total representing each congressional district.
“Educators who are in the classroom teaching (the standards) can be proud of it,” said Clemons.
The new standards were adopted without any questions or discussion.
Chris Jans’ Mississippi State Bulldogs, undefeated and ranked No. 17 in the nation, rolled into Mississippi Coliseum Wednesday night as a whopping 21-point favorite over Jackson State, who had won just once. And if that sounds like a potential snooze fest, just know that it was not.
Rick Cleveland
The Bulldogs were behind with eight minutes to play and had to fight, scratch and persist for a 69-59 victory over the Tigers, who were well-prepared and played their rear ends off.
Two ways to look at this result, depending on your perspective:
One, State, now 10-0, took JSU’s best shot but still made all the clutch plays at crunch time to win before an enthused crowd of 3,206 on a rainy night in the Capital City.
Two, Jackson State, playing its first game in its home city this season, not only had to battle a more talented team but did so before a highly partisan Mississippi State crowd. Said Mo Williams, the former NBA star and first-year JSU coach: “This was our first game in Jackson, and our fans didn’t show up. If this had been a football game, we’d have had 60,000 people. We’ve been on the road all season and then to come home and not have the support of our fans. I am disappointed. Think what a difference that might have made in a close game.”
To be sure, State’s rally over the last eight minutes was fueled by a loud, pro-MSU crowd that surprised even Jans, who credited his fans for making a difference. “Our fans were awesome,” he said.
The Bulldogs needed all the help they could get. Jackson State, which out-rebounded the Bulldogs 31-24, appeared far better than the 1-9 team they are. That’s because the Tigers are better than that. Their first nine games, all on the road, included games at Michigan, Indiana, TCU and some other tough mid-level Division I foes. The Tigers’ lone victory was at SMU. They are not a terrible team. They will win many games once they begin SWAC play and play half their games at home. Until then, well, they play at Texas Tech Saturday and then at No. 4 Alabama next Tuesday. If that hardly seems fair, well, it’s not.
“We gotta go play the games to make the money,” Williams said. “It’s not an excuse, it’s reality.”
Meanwhile, Jans, who came to Mississippi State from New Mexico State, has something special going. The Bulldogs already claim victories over Utah of the Pac-12, tradition-rich Marquette of the Big East and Minnesota of the Big 10. Jans’ team plays extremely hard and plays defense with purpose.
“They are good, really good,” said WIlliams, the Jackson native who played his college basketball at Alabama and knows a good college team when he sees one. “They are really athletic and they can really get out and run. Our plan was to make it a half-court game and we did for the most part. But they made the big plays down the stretch and that’s what really good teams do.”
State has at least two potential NBA players in 6-foot-11 Tolu Smith and 6-7 D.J. Jeffries, both seniors and both listed as forwards. Smith is the team’s star, averaging 16 points and nine rebounds, while shooting 63% from the floor. You’d love to see the Bulldogs get him the ball more down low in the post where he most effective. He made four of his only five shots against Jackson State, which swarmed him for much of then night. Jeffries, from Olive Branch, was one of the state’s most highly recruited players ever before signing with Memphis out of high school. As a senior, he appears to be playing with more purpose than ever. He led the Bulldogs with 15 points Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs’ best player Wednesday night might have been reserve forward Keyshawn Murphy, a 6-10 redshirt freshman out of Birmingham, who scored 10 points and passed out two assists in just 12 minutes. He has a chance to be special.
For Jackson State, the star was Coltie Young, a left-handed sharpshooter from Starkville, of all places. Young made 7 of 11 3-pointers and topped all scorers with 23 points. He gave his team a chance to win over his hometown team.
For Mississippi State, Wednesday night’s game was a chance to smile and cheer after a three days of mourning the death of beloved football coach Mike Leach. There was a moment of silence, followed by respectful applause, before the opening tip.
Said Jeffries, afterward, “Everybody at Mississippi State, including us, has been grieving. We wanted to do something for them, give them something to cheer.”
More than 20 years after his conviction for murder and rape, Thomas Loden Jr. was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
Loden, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said the execution had no problems and went as expected.
“I’d like to express to the Gray family and anyone else I hurt how deeply remorseful I am for everything I did,” Loden said in his last words. “I know these mere words mean nothing and cannot erase the damage I did. For the last 20 years, I’ve tried to do a good deed every single day to make up for the life I took from this world. If nothing else, I hope you get peace and closure.”
At the end, he said the words “I love you” in Japanese, said Deputy Commissioner Jeworski Mallet.
In June 2000, Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter, kidnapped 16-year-old waitress Leesa Gray and sexually assaulted her for hours in his car before killing her.
The crime verberated throughout the Dorsey community in northeast Mississippi. Over 1,000 people attended Gray’s funeral held at Itawamba Agricultural High School, where she had just finished her junior year.
Loden pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to death. He went on to spend the next 20 years trying to appeal his conviction in state and federal court.
As of Wednesday morning, he didn’t plan to seek further delays in his execution. Loden’s last attempt to stop the execution was last week when he sought a stay from U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the state’s use of a three-drug cocktail for lethal injections.
At an afternoon news conference, Parchman Superintendent Marc McClure said he spent most of the day with Loden and found he was in good spirits and seemed accepting about the execution.
“He was genuinely concerned about what he had done [and] ready to do what he had to do,” McClure said.
Members of Gray’s family, including her mother Wanda Farris, previously said they would witness Loden’s execution. Lisa Darracott, Gray’s best friend from childhood, also came to Parchman to support Gray’s family but not as a witness.
A Department of Corrections spokesman said there were two witnesses from Gray’s family and two for Loden, but their names were not provided.
Thomas Loden, convicted of rape and murder,was executed Dec. 14, 2022. Credit: MDOC
Loden had requested daily visits from the Department of Corrections chaplain Maurice Clifton and a mental health professional leading up to the execution, prison officials said.
Loden’s last meal was fried pork chops, fried okra, a baked sweet potato and biscuits, prison officials said. Dessert was peach cobbler with French vanilla ice cream and a Lipton sweet tea for a drink.
Several people who are against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson in the early evening and at Parchman right before the execution.
In Fulton, community members gathered at Bethel Baptist Church in the evening wearing purple in remembrance of Gray, who attended the church.
On Tuesday, advocates from Death Penalty Action delivered a petition signed by about 3,500 people to Gov. Tate Reeves, asking him to stop Loden’s execution. The Catholic Mobilizing Network circulating a similar petition online.
I have never given anyone more than one obituary cartoon. Even Mother Teresa only got one. However, I felt like yesterday’s cartoon reflected our shock and sadness. So wanted to draw one that reflected Coach Leach’s wonderful inquisitive nature and very funny storytelling ability. I sat up last night watching videos of his stories and captured some of my favorite ones here (except for his wedding advice, which I think it is brilliant.) Also, make sure you sign up for my newsletter. I’ve written a column on my thoughts about why his passing stung so much.
Members of the Mississippi Ethics Commission by a 5-3 vote Wednesday reiterated their belief that the state Legislature, which appropriates more than $20 billion annually in state and federal funds, is not bound by the open meetings law.
In reaching the conclusion, the majority said the Ethics Commission, a state agency, could not rely on guidance from the Mississippi Constitution.
The constitution states in Section 58 “the doors of each house in session or in committee of the whole, shall be kept open.”
Five members of the Ethics Commission said they were required by law to rule only on issues related to the state’s open meetings law and the law, they claimed, does not include the Legislature as a public body.
Wednesday’s meeting was the third one this month where the commission grappled with the issue. The order adopted Wednesday saying the Legislature is not a public body as defined by the open meetings law was a final order.
The issue arose from a complaint filed by the Mississippi Free Press saying House Speaker Philip Gunn was violating the open meetings law when the Republican Caucus, which includes 75 members of the 122-member House, meets routinely behind closed doors. The constitution mandates that a majority of either the House or Senate is a quorum or enough members to conduct business.
Mississippi Today has documented, based on multiple accounts, that the House Republican Caucus often discusses policy issues and legislation during the closed-door meetings. When other public bodies have met behind closed doors to discuss policy issues, it has been deemed to be a violation of the open meetings law by the courts.
The Free Press and Mississippi Center of Justice said Wednesday it would appeal the Ethics Commission ruling.
“Although the (state) Constitution requires the Legislature to keep its doors open when in session, the Open Meetings Act is even more comprehensive and would require that other meetings of legislators, like the Republican Caucus, be open to the public when they constitute a quorum and are discussing public business,” said Rob McDuff, a Center for Justice lawyer. “We are appealing because we believe the Ethics Commission got it wrong, but the Legislature could easily fix this by requiring itself to live up to the standards it requires of other public bodies.”
Commissioner Maxwell Luter of Tylertown offered a proposal that said while the commission does not have the authority to rule on constitutional issues, it could not ignore what the state constitution said. For that reason, he said, the commission should not rule and leave it to the courts to make a final decision.
Luter said the public perception of the Ethics Commission was at stake. He said it “is very important to know we (Ethics Commission members) make just decisions.”
Commissioner Ron Crowe of Brandon, the former executive director of the Ethics Commission, also opposed the finding that the Legislature is not a public body. He said the issue is “eerily” similar to an issue that arose with the state constitution’s conflict of interest provision. In the 1980s the commission interpreted the provision as prohibiting certain people, such as public school teachers, from serving in the Legislature.
Instead, of making that ruling, Crowe said the commission opted to allow the Legislature to address it. Ultimately, the courts sided with the Ethics Commission.
Commissioner Robert Waites of Brandon, a former House attorney in the 1980s, also opposed the finding that the Legislature is not a public body under the open meetings law.
The five commissioners who passed the motion saying the Legislature is not a public body are long-time Chairman Ben Stone of Gulfport, Vice Chair Sean Milner of Clinton, Stephen Burrow of Pascagoula, Erin Lane of Ridgeland and Samuel Kelly of Madison.
Most of the five said they believe the Legislature should be a public body, but that the open meetings law is ambiguous on whether it applied to the Legislature. And if the law is ambiguous, then they had no choice but to rule that the Legislature is not covered.
But Milner said, “I don’t believe it is ambiguous. I think the law is clear (that it does not apply to the Legislature) once we apply proper interpretation.”
The law says most legislative committees are bound by open meetings requirements, but does not specifically list the Legislature among those public bodies that are included. McDuff, the Center for Justice attorney, pointed out the law says the open meetings mandate also applies “to any other policymaking entity.” Since the Legislature is the state’s primary “policymaking entity,” the law, of course would apply to lawmakers, McDuff said.
But a majority of the commission said the phrase “policymaking entity” referred to various executive boards, not the Legislature.
Under the nation’s and state’s system of checks and balances, legislators, including the Mississippi Legislature, generally make laws or policy and the executive agencies carry out those policies and laws.
The Ethics Commissioner members are appointed by the governor, speaker, lieutenant governor, and chief justice of the Supreme Court.
BILOXI — Most voters would say that a politician switching parties in the middle of a term is the ultimate betrayal of their trust.
Elected officials are, indeed, entrusted by voters to make decisions for them based on a set of shared, usually partisan principles. District lines are drawn, laws are passed, and judicial opinions are written to honor this cornerstone of American democracy. It’s intended to ensure all people are adequately represented in our government — one of the most important ideals to everyday Americans who feel that trust is their only connection with the leaders who serve them.
That’s why a midterm flip-flop at any level feels like a blindside to those who live within those representatives’ districts. The feeling is especially fresh on the minds of many East Biloxi residents this week.
Biloxi City Councilman Felix Gines recently had one word for his recent flip from the Mississippi Democratic Party to the Mississippi Republican Party: relief. But many constituents in his ward are using much different words for his decision: disappointment, anger and, yes, betrayal.
Gines is the latest in a string of Democratic defections as state party dysfunction continues to cede power to Republicans. Mississippi Republicans wield immense political influence at the state, local and federal levels thanks, in large part, to flips.
But this latest conversion has turned more heads than usual because of its racial dynamics: Gines is the first GOP pick-up since state Republican Party leaders announced an initiative to attract Black candidates.
Biloxi City Councilman Felix Gines
“Coming into a predominantly Black district and making a bold change like this will allow people to not take their vote for granted,” Gines told Mississippi Today in a lengthy interview last week. “So often, we’ll give our votes away for whatever reason. Well who’s going to be best for our community? That’s what it’s got to come down to. This bold move will serve as a wake-up call to not just the Black community, but all communities across the state. And particularly in Biloxi.”
He was right about at least one thing: His constituents here in Biloxi are wide awake following his party switch — just not in the way he was hoping.
About 20% of Biloxi’s 50,000 residents are Black. Gines was elected as a Democrat to the city council to represent East Biloxi, a predominantly Black neighborhood. For years, he has been the city’s only Black elected official — the beneficiary of the codified notion that all Americans should be adequately represented in government.
Civil rights history in Gines’ district runs deep. A series of wade-ins at Biloxi Beach in the 1960s helped integrate the Mississippi Gulf Coast and make it a vacation destination for Southern Blacks — a reality that continues to bolster the local economy. The main stretch of Highway 90 along the beach is named in honor of Dr. Gilbert R. Mason, who led the wade-ins and fought his whole life for voting rights and equal representation in government. Murals and other visible signs of the area’s commitment to political activism remain, and the Biloxi NAACP chapter is among the most active in the state.
Needless to say, Gines’ decision to pledge allegiance to the virtually all-white Mississippi Republican Party is not sitting well with many of his constituents.
“The Republican Party is the party that is everything anti-Black,” said Bill Stallworth, a community leader who formerly held Gines’ city council seat. “It’s the party of Strom Thurmond, of the Southern Strategy, of policies intended to keep Black folks down. To win, they’ve redrawn lines, disenfranchised so many voters and created lies about massive voter fraud. The effects are real, and they are deep.”
Putting Gines’ party switch bluntly, Stallworth said: “If we have to start throwing away our principles, if this is what we have to do to get elected, maybe we shouldn’t get elected.”
Gines told Mississippi Today no one factor led him to flip. When asked how he squared many of the modern Republican Party’s policies and principles that have worked against Black people, he harkened back to 19th century America.
“I’ve been using the term ‘going back home’ because this was once the party of Blacks,” Gines said. “Blacks once called the Republican Party the party of Lincoln. Look at the history: the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment. When you start talking about civil rights and freedom, one of the first groups to push civil rights in America was the Republican Party. Now what it’s become versus what it was is two different things.”
When pressed about the more modern policies of the Republican Party, Gines deflected and said, “I don’t think that there’s anything that everyone believes in 100% in either party.” When asked which Republican Party platforms he agreed with, he mentioned just one theme.
“I grew up in a conservative household,” he said. “There were 11 kids, and we had to stretch a dollar. My dad knew how to budget his household. If he didn’t budget his household right, his kids would’ve had to go without. That is what we call true conservative living. Fiscal responsibility. That jumps right out.”
He did not directly answer a question about whether he felt he had properly managed the city of Biloxi’s spending during his previous two terms as a Democrat.
Just a few hours after he announced the party flip, there were broad talks of unseating Gines. For more than a week now, callers to WJZD owner Rip Daniels’ popular radio show “It’s a New Day” have blistered Gines for his party switch.
“Felix Gines’ values are just the same as all Republicans trying to move up — that is, they’re out for themselves,” Gwen Catchings, a retired professor and business owner who lives in Gines’ district, told Mississippi Today. “They’re willing to sell their soul to the devil in order to get where they want to go. What they fail to realize is that once you go down that slippery slope, you’ve lost all your integrity.”
The recent effort of GOP officials to attract Black elected officials may have flipped Gines, but it could prove difficult to sustain come election time. While generations of Black Mississippians have fought and even died for better representation, Mississippi has never elected a Black candidate to statewide office. No legislative Republican is Black, and virtually all of the state’s Black elected officials are Democrats or independents.
GOP officials, though, say they will double down on their currently held values to try to appeal to a more diverse set of candidates.
“We know our plans and policies to reduce inflation, lower taxes, cut wasteful spending, secure our borders, invest in national defense, and restore American energy are appealing to all Americans,” Mississippi GOP Chairman Frank Bordeaux said in a statement. “We’re taking that message to communities where Republicans have not traditionally been as successful in order to recruit, train, and elect a more diverse group of candidates and bring thousands more freedom-loving Mississippians into our party. Felix Gines making the decision to join our party is a major win for us.”
But Black voters in Gines’ district do not appear moved to join him in the Republican Party — “the party of Donald Trump and insurrectionists,” as Daniels recently put it on his radio show.
“I know Dr. Gilbert R. Mason is turning over in his grave today,” Catchings said of Gines’ GOP flip. “If the Republican Party really wants to do something for Black folks in Mississippi, it wouldn’t be important if Felix Gines or anyone else was Republican or Democrat. They would already be doing it. If they didn’t do it while he was a Democrat, they aren’t going to do it when he’s a Republican. It’s just so obvious. Why should we fall for that? What we have is just like Georgia and Herschel Walker. The white folks have found them a Black boy. That’s all this is, and we aren’t going to fall for it.”
Dr. Gilbert R. Mason led the Biloxi Beach wade-ins and fought his whole life for voting rights and equal representation in government.
In 2019, Gines ran as a Democrat for a Biloxi-based House of Representatives seat as a Democrat. He came within about 150 votes of unseating incumbent state Rep. Randall Patterson, a Republican who himself was a Democrat until he flipped to the Republican Party midterm in 2014. Gines decried the lack of support from the Mississippi Democratic Party in the 2019 race and blamed his loss on state party dysfunction.
When Mississippi Today asked if Gines planned to run for that House of Representatives seat in 2023, this time as a Republican, he let out an extended laugh before responding, “Right now, my job is to serve my constituents and do the best I can to serve them. But I won’t rule out any future runs.”
Patterson told Mississippi Today on Dec. 13 he had not yet decided whether he’ll run for a sixth term in the House, but he praised Gines for “having a good heart” and “doing a good job as Biloxi councilman.”
Regardless of Gines’ future plans, many of his council ward’s constituents are fuming. Stallworth, who served on the Biloxi City Council for 10 years and lost to Gines in the 2013 Democratic primary, said he was approached several times by the Republican Party with incentives to flip.
“All I had to do for more power was give up my integrity, to be loyal to the party, to be loyal to the money,” Stallworth said of those offers. “I didn’t do it because I’d rather be loyal to principles and to what my God says to be. I don’t plan on losing my soul. My integrity is the last thing I’ve got, and I’d fight with everything in my power to maintain that. I don’t have a lot to leave my children. But if I can leave them with a sense of integrity and honesty and fair play, if I can give them that, I will have done well.”
Stallworth continued: “I don’t mind anyone being a Democrat or Republican, but I do mind people being liars and cheats. I’d say that to Mr. Gines or any other politician. You’ve got to be honest with yourself at the end of the day. Anything less than that just isn’t acceptable.”
Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or dial 988. Local resources include the Mississippi Department of Mental Health DMH Helpline at 1-877-210-8513.
Today’s scheduled execution of Thomas Loden Jr. may bring some closure to his victim’s family but also, barring any last-minute stays, end to a troubled life.
While no justification can be made for Loden’s assault and murder of a 16-year-old waitress, what brought him to that point may be found in his past.
In court documents, attorneys for Loden have told the story of a man who was physically and sexually abused as a child and experienced post-traumatic stress disorder from his military deployment.
The 58-year-old has been on death row for over 20 years for the 2000 murder and rape of Leesa Gray in Dorsey in Itawamba County.
He had no criminal record prior to Gray’s murder, his attorneys said.
Loden was born to a mother who married his father at age 17 to escape a difficult home life, according to court documents.
His father was physically and sexually abusive toward his mother, and it is likely Loden witnessed the abuse, court documents say.
His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and Loden bounced between living with his parents. Court documents say his step parents physically abused him.
Loden also experienced sexual abuse from a church staff member at Bible school.
As a result of trauma, he had attempted suicide several times and had substance use problems, according to court documents.
Loden gained stability when he went to live with his grandparents on their farm in Itawamba County, according to court documents.
After graduating from Itawamba Agricultural High School in 1982, Loden joined the Marine Corps.
His commanding officer described Loden as “a poster Marine” and the “hardest charging Marine I have ever had work for me,” according to court documents.
He sought promotion opportunities, eventually reaching the rank of gunnery sergeant. Throughout his career, he received several awards and medals such as the Combat Action Ribbon, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Good Conduct Medal, according to court documents.
Loden served in the Gulf War where his unit was often attacked. He witnessed deaths, including that of a close friend.
That friend’s death experience changed him, Loden’s wife said in court documents, and she said he was different after the war. He drank heavily, took drugs, had nightmares and flashbacks and picked fights. He became less social, distant from loved ones and felt anxious in crowds.
A psychologist who worked with Loden’s attorneys diagnosed him with chronic PTSD from combat, complex PTSD from his childhood and borderline personality disorder.
After deployment, Loden was transferred a number of times, including in 1995 to Virginia to be an instructor for the Marine Corps’ Anti-Terrorism Security Team – a prestigious and high pressure assignment.
In Virginia, he met his third wife. His two previous marriages ended when his wives were unfaithful, according to court documents. He had a daughter with his third wife, and the family moved to Vicksburg for him to work as a recruiter.
His third marriage also turned out to be troubled.
Loden’s attorneys argued their strained relationship, paired with drugs and alcohol, influenced how he acted the night of Gray’s death.
Days before the murder, Loden traveled from Vicksburg to his grandparent’s farm to care for his grandmother. He was also stressed from the recruiting quotas at work, according to court documents.
He had been drinking and took drugs throughout the day when he received a call from his wife, who claimed she had telephone sex with a partner from the law firm where she worked, and that she planned to have sex with him while Loden was away, according to court documents.
That evening he went to Comer’s Restaurant where Gray was his waitress and tried to flirt with the teenager. Loden waited until she was off work and found her parked by the side of the road with a flat tire.
He offered help and told her he was with the Marines. He asked if she ever thought about joining, and Gray gave a response that angered him, according to court documents. Loden forced her into his van, where he repeatedly raped and murdered her.
The psychologist said Loden experienced a localized episode of dissociative amnesia when he killed Gray, according to court documents.
When her body was discovered in his car, law enforcement found Loden lying by the side of the road with self-inflicted wounds on his wrists and the words “I’m sorry” carved into his chest, according to court documents.
During his 2001 trial, Loden admitted to killing Gray, as opposed to letting her go, because it would “tarnish [his] image as the perfect Marine.” In later appeals, mitigation evidence became a focus of his attorneys’ argument that Loden had ineffective assistance of counsel.
Loden pleaded guilty to all counts and waived his right to a jury for trial and sentencing, hoping to spare Gray’s family and friends a long trial.
“I hope you may have some sense of justice when you leave here today,” he said during his trial.
