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Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday announced he was calling lawmakers into special session Wednesday to approve incentives for what he called the largest economic development project in state history.

Reeves posted on social media: “Biggest economic development project in MS history coming to Golden Triangle: $2.5 billion capital investment (Nearly 2X larger than previous CapEx record), 1000 jobs, $93,000 average salary.”

Reeves did not name the company, but in a release said it includes a flat-rolled aluminum plant, “biocarbon production facilities and other industrial facilities” in the Golden Triangle area of the state, which spans from Starkville to West Point to Columbus.

Sources familiar with the project say it will be a major expansion of an aluminum or steel company already located in the Columbus area. The Legislature will be asked to provide between $150 million and $160 million in incentives to help with the construction of the plant.

Over the summer, Steel Dynamics, which has a plant in Columbus, announced it was planning to build three large facilities in North America to supply the automotive and packaging industries with recycled aluminum materials. In July, the company said it planned to build a flat-rolled aluminum mill in the Southeast as part of the expansion.

Typically, major economic development projects require legislative approval when the state spends large amounts of tax dollars on incentives — such as for infrastructure or on tax breaks.

Normally the Legislature issues debt to help with infrastructure needs for major economic development projects. But there most likely will be consideration of paying for the incentives with existing revenue instead of issuing bonds to be paid off over multiple years. The state currently has more than $2 billion in surplus revenue thanks in part to strong economic activity and influx of billions of federal dollars after the COVID-19 pandemic,

Reeves said he had briefed Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn and other legislative leaders on the development and that he is “Looking forward to full legislative bodies taking swift action for what could be a 1-day session.”

Hosemann on Monday said: “We are in the process of contacting senators to make sure they are available for Wednesday’s special session. Initial review of the summaries show this project will have a positive impact on the State.”

“Our team also continues to work on the other issues the Legislature will face in the Regular Session,” Hosemann said.

Reeves last week, at a speech at the state chamber of commerce’s annual “Hobnob” hinted at a major economic development project. He said that Mississippi has seen $3.5 billion in new capital investments in the state so far in 2022 and, “I’ve got a pretty good inkling it’s going to go a lot higher between now and Dec. 31.”

“It is an economic development project somewhere in northeast Mississippi,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader. “I wish I could tell you more.”

Members of the Lowndes County legislative delegation were scheduled to meet with economic developers from the area later Monday.

“It is huge,” said Rep. Kabir Karriem, a Democrat who represents portions of Lowndes County.

House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who most likely will handle the incentive package in the special session, said, “I am looking forward to adding jobs to the Mississippi economy.”

Other lawmakers appeared to know scant details.

“I heard this morning that there may be a special session,” said Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point. “Economic development, that’s what I heard, but I haven’t heard anything else at this point.”

Johnson said it is great that an economic development project is coming to northeast Mississippi but said the Legislature should be doing more to help other areas of the state.

“You have the Greenwood hospital about to close in the Delta,” he said. “You have the water issues in Jackson.”

The post Gov. Reeves calling in lawmakers to pass incentives for $2.5 billion aluminum plant appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For over 20 years, Stephanie Mallette has served as a public defender working on part-time contracts with Oktibbeha and Webster counties in Mississippi. 

Like most public defenders in Mississippi, Mallette was appointed by a judge. She represented an unlimited number of defendants for a fixed payment that often did not cover the cost of investigators or expert witnesses for the cases.

Many times when Mallette filed a motion for her client she said she thought twice to make sure she could prove to the judge she was not wasting time and money.

“My first priority is to my clients, but that is always balanced and tempered against how bad this is going to piss the judge off,” she said.

Mallette’s experience is not unique. In Mississippi, attorneys who represent the indigent in criminal cases have to deal with an underfunded public-defender system that lacks statewide funding and oversight. In an ideal criminal justice system, the three components, law enforcement, prosecution and defense would be balanced in order to work fairly. But Mississippi spends significantly less money on the public defender system than its counterpart, the district attorney’s offices. 

This funding discrepancy results in a decentralized indigent defense system that fails to provide state oversight and ensure independence from the judiciary. Since the system allows judges in counties without a funded public defender’s office to have control over how attorneys are chosen and compensated, indigent defense attorneys might fear that when they push too hard, they will lose their job. 

“Someone might say you need to Don Quixote everything,” Mallette said, “but if they’re gonna get rid of me, then I can’t help anybody.” 

READ MORE: Black Americans are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted

‘People don’t see what’s happening’

When facing charges that could lead to imprisonment, people have the constitutional right for legal counsel to represent them. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright mandated that states provide free lawyers for indigent defendants in criminal cases. 

Public defenders are appointed by the courts for defendants who cannot afford legal representation. Of the 82 counties in Mississippi, only eight have full-time public defender offices, while the vast majority of counties hire part-time contractors to provide legal representation. Meanwhile, a few counties appoint lawyers on a case-by-case basis and pay by an hourly rate.

Most of those charged with crimes in Mississippi can’t afford private attorneys. Indigent defendants in non-capital cases rely on a public defender system funded by local governments, many of which struggle to finance this service. 

Since 1990 they also get “overhead”, said state public defender Andre de Gruy. “In  practice the very few who get appointed under that statute get an hourly rate. Most people getting appointed are doing so under a flat fee contract or in an office. the vast majority of capital cases are NOT death penalty cases. That is, the (district attorney) is not seeking death,”  he said.

The decentralized structure makes it hard to assess indigent defense services in Mississippi. “It’s out of view for most people, so people don’t see what’s happening,” said David Carroll, the executive director of the Boston-based Sixth Amendment Center, which compiled a report, The Right to Counsel in Mississippi: Evaluation of Adult Felony Trial Level Indigent Defense Services, on indigent defense services in Mississippi.

The report, published in 2018 at the request of the Mississippi Public Defender Task Force, found an absence of state standards and oversight to ensure local governments provide effective assistance of counsel to indigent defendants. 

“The very first principle for an effective indigent defense system is that it must be independent from the judiciary,” Carroll said. 

However, with most counties not having public defender offices, judges in Mississippi play a key role in selecting public defenders. Judges also approve the payment, which except in death penalty cases  is capped at $1,000 per case, plus expenses allowed by the judge, regardless of the time required to defend the case.

This system can create incentives for attorneys to rush a client to plead guilty, the report reveals. 

“People who are entitled to a defense are entitled to a full-time defense,” said Aisha Sanders, part-time public defender in Adams County. “They should be getting lawyers who can spend the same equal amount of time on their cases as the (district attorney) offices.”

One defendant had been in jail two and a half years when the judge reassigned his case to Sanders. She found out the previous lawyer had failed to file a single motion to move the case forward.

As soon as she saw the file, “I realized I see why he [the defendant] was upset.”

When she pushed for the trial, the district attorney dismissed the charges, she said. “We finally got them out.”

Some charges might be enough to get a preliminary hearing but not enough to secure a conviction, she said. “That happens quite often.”

‘They are underpaying us’

The lack of independence also manifests itself when private attorneys working with part-time contracts seek raises.

Sanders is one of the three Black public defenders serving in Adams County, where Black residents make up more than half the population. 

Many defendants who come through the system are Black, and a lot of times they have a hard time trusting other attorneys who don’t come from the community, Sanders said. “I ended up getting a lot more cases.”

But in 2020, she found out that she and the other Black female public defender, Lydia Blackmon, failed to get a pay raise that others received. They ended up suing the county, and 13 months later, they finally received the equal pay.

Though most public defenders are underpaid, they say it’s difficult to ask for a raise if they are under part-time contracts. In Oktibbeha County, Mallette worked for 17 years without a raise until Judge James T. Kitchens went to the Board of Supervisors on their behalf in 2016 and lobbied on their behalf. 

‘You wait in jail without a lawyer until you get indicted’

Attorneys working in counties with no public-defender offices often have little control over their defense processes because they can’t begin their work when the person is charged. 

In Mississippi, the constitutional right to have an attorney doesn’t kick in until defendants are indicted. While some counties appoint lawyers only after indictment, most counties and cities appoint two sets of attorneys to specialize on cases at different court levels. 

Duane Lake was in jail without a lawyer for almost three years before he got indicted. He eventually spent six years in Coahoma County jail for a murder he didn’t commit. 

Lake briefly had a lawyer to stand in for his preliminary hearing, but no attorney was appointed to represent him after that. 

“It’s detrimental that you don’t have a lawyer,” he said.

Before he was indicted, he tried to file a motion on his own behalf, but the judge never acknowledged that motion.

Cliff Johnson, the director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, referred to this lengthy period Lake experienced without representation as the “dead zone” that would impair the quality of defense. 

“You do get a lawyer, but you just get them for a very brief period of time,” said Johnson. “That lawyer disappears. You wait in jail without a lawyer until you get indicted.” 

According to Johnson, Mississippi is one of the very few states where there is no time limit between the date of arrest and the date of indictment, meaning that people could spend an indefinite amount of time in jail without indictment. 

During this time, as prosecutors gather evidence to make cases for a trial, there is no public defender investigating on the behalf of the defendant, he said. When Lake finally got appointed to a state public defender for the death penalty three years later, some potential witnesses who could help prove his innocence had passed away. 

If the people arrested can hire a private attorney, “the lawyers for a person with money will stay with you through this time,” Johnson said. “They would be talking to witnesses or gathering documents.”

After the court dropped the death penalty charge, Lake was appointed three part-time public defenders until the court finally dropped all of his charges. The trial took so long his lawyer ended up retiring because his contract with the county was up. 

“The system is not designed for you to win,” Lake said. 

Within each county, the defense system may be different, depending on the resources a county can allocate for indigent defense. Public defenders, who often deal with heavy caseloads and limited resources, also bear the most blame of the incompetent system.

In Webster County, Mallette goes to some of the lower court hearings, though she relies on the help of another contracted attorney to handle preliminary hearings. But since Eupora in Webster County has another public defender, she doesn’t know anything about the cases from that city until they move to the Circuit Court after indictment. 

In Oktibbeha County, where Mallette also serves, she can have consistency from the time her clients are charged until their cases are resolved. While Mallette agrees that consistency leads to more efficiency, she also bears a greater burden because she is handling these cases without assistants and investigators.

Many times, the court clerk notifies her that she has been appointed to a case in which all she knows is the defendant’s name and charges, she said. “I have no idea who I represent right now. I’ve got no clue. I’ve got 50 emails, but I don’t know who’s in jail.” 

She said she ends up with more responsibility and lacks the support she needs to do her job well.

Johnson sees inequality as the problem. Most rural counties in Mississippi don’t have a public defender office. 

State Public Defender André de Gruy explained that counties that have lower tax revenues risk more social problems because they have less industry and fewer jobs. Those counties also are not able to sufficiently fund a public defender system. 

“I get calls to the state defender asking, ‘Well, who’s the lawyer on the case?’” de Gruy said, “because people are just trying to find out who represents their loved one and they assume the public defender would do that.” 

The authors of the Sixth Amendment report warn that Mississippi risks being sued over its provision of indigent defense services. 

Between 2009 and 2017, they note, courts in six states allowed civil class action lawsuits to go forward over allegations that indigent criminal defendants were being systematically denied their right to counsel based on the same criteria used in this assessment of Mississippi. In each case, the courts ruled the defendants don’t have to wait until their cases are over to prove they received ineffective assistance of counsel. The defendants instead “may seek to vindicate their right to counsel before it is denied to them in the first place.”

This story was produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes Mississippi Today, MCIR, the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University and Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

The post ‘The system is not designed for you to win’: Underfunded public defender system penalizes Mississippians appeared first on Mississippi Today.

National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson discusses Jackson’s water crisis and the NAACP’s Title VI discrimination complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency calling for an investigation into whether the state of Mississippi has over years diverted federal funds that should have gone to help the city’s infrastructure.

The post Podcast: NAACP President discusses Jackson water crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jackson was alive this weekend with happy JSU and Southern fans spending their money in Jackson’s beleaguered restaurants. It was a welcome pick-me-up.

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

In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Extra Table’s Executive Director Martha Allen to talk about Extra Table’s mission, the many facets of hunger in Mississippi and how you can sponsor a TURKEY as a part of their Tackle Hunger Holiday Campaign for $15. A single donation will put a 10-12 pound Jennie-O turkey on the table of a family in need this holiday season.

Founded in 2009 by restauranteur Robert St. John, Extra Table has helped fight hunger by stocking food pantries across the state of Mississippi by lowering the cost of food — every dollar provides 5.9 meals.

The post Mississippi Stories: Martha Allen appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Supreme Court will most likely have an opportunity to rule on whether the state Constitution prevents the appropriation of public funds to private schools or explain why the Constitution does not mean what it says.

In recent years the nine members of the Mississippi’s highest court have sometimes adhered to the plain-reading-of-the-law principle in their decisions, while at other notable times they have not.

It has just depended on the issue and perhaps the mood of the court.

Plain meaning in legal parlance, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined “the language is unambiguous and clear on its face,” and “the meaning of the statute or contract must be determined from the language of the statute or contract and not from extrinsic evidence.”

Or, according to the Congressional Research Service, it is defined as: “The starting point in construing a statute is the language of the statute itself. The Supreme Court often recites the ‘plain meaning rule,’ that, if the language of the statute is plain and unambiguous, it must be applied according to its terms.”

On Oct. 13, Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin ruled, based on the plain reading, that legislation passed earlier this year providing government funds to private schools was unconstitutional. The state Legislature provided $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to private schools. It was added to legislation late in the session. Gov. Tate Reeves, long a private school proponent, signed off on the proposal.

Parents for Public Schools filed a lawsuit saying the appropriation was not valid based on that aforementioned plain reading of the Mississippi Constitution.

Martin sided with Parents for Public Schools in the case, but her ruling most likely will be appealed. That appeal means the Supreme Court will again have the chance to decide whether the text of a law, a constitutional provision in the case, should be adhered to or ignored.

In 2017, in a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that just because a law said “effective with fiscal year 2007, the Legislature shall fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program” did not really mean the Legislature had to actually fully fund the program that provides the state’s share of the basics for the operation of the local school districts.

On the other hand, the justices did adhere to a law that said they “shall” receive a pay raise if recommended by the state Personnel Board. A little noticed section of a 2012 bill passed by the Legislature essentially gives the judiciary the authority to award itself a pay raise sans action of the Legislature. This judicial pay process seems in conflict with the fact the Constitution gives the Legislature the authority to appropriate funds. Plus, pay raises for elected officials normally are awarded based on the action of the Legislature not the judiciary.

Or to put it another way, when a law says local schools “shall” be fully funded, the plain reading is ignored by the Supreme Court. But when the law says the judiciary “shall” award itself a pay raise, the plain reading is followed.

The plain reading also was ignored in 2020 when the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ballot initiative process was invalid. The court ruled unconstitutional the language approved overwhelmingly by the Mississippi electorate in the early 1990s that requires a mandated number of signatures to be gathered equally from five congressional districts to place an initiative proposal on the ballot.

The court found that because the state no longer has five congressional districts, the initiative process was unconstitutional. The court made that ruling without taking into account that the members of the Mississippi Community College Board, as well as other boards in the state, also are selected from the same five now defunct congressional districts. Perhaps the state Community College Board also is unconstitutional.

Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution reads, “No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.” 

Hinds County Chancellor Martin said that language is clear. It says what it says — no public appropriation to a school “not conducted as a free public school.”

It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court will adhere to that plain language or find a way to uphold language supported by the leadership of the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves.

The post Will Supreme Court rely on literal reading when deciding legality of public funds to private schools? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

To quote Hamilton, JSU landed in the room where it happened.

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A federal board has scheduled its vote on whether Amtrak’s service will return to Mississippi’s Gulf Coast with a route from Mobile to New Orleans. 

The Surface Transportation Board, a federal body made up of presidential appointees, announced Friday it will vote on the future of the passenger route on Dec. 7. The contested route has been under the board’s review for over a year, with Amtrak and the track’s freight-company owners presenting their own cases about its viability. 

There will be a final set of November hearings ahead of the vote. 

“Amtrak is preparing for the next hearing, confident in our case for Gulf Coast access and optimistic our service will begin next year,” spokesman Marc Magliari said in a statement. 

Read more: Amtrak breaks ground for new Gulf Coast platform, though route still uncertain

Amtrak has maintained the route can handle the added passenger train traffic, while companies CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company say it could negatively affect businesses that rely on the Port of Mobile to move freight. 

The hearings, beginning Nov. 17, will focus on models that predict train traffic. 

Amtrak hasn’t run a Gulf Coast route since Hurricane Katrina. The proposed route would run two trains daily in the morning with stops in Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Gulfport and Biloxi. 

The post Vote scheduled to decide fate of Gulf Coast Amtrak route appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Joe Paul, the eleventh president of University of Southern Mississippi, walked onto the stage at the Thad Cochran Center on Thursday to a standing ovation, a scaled-down marching band and cheers of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” 

“Okay,” Paul exclaimed as he took in the scene. “Um, wow.” 

The celebration marked Paul’s first public address since the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees cut its executive search short earlier this week and announced that the longtime administrator was signing on to lead the university for the next four years. 

In an 11-minute speech, Paul told the audience – which included students, faculty, state and local elected officials and members of the IHL board – that he is committed to serving everyone on campus. He vowed to grow enrollment, expand USM’s beleaguered Gulf Coast campus, bring in more research dollars, improve student life and recommit to shared governance with faculty. 

“Together, we are mighty,” he told the crowd multiple times. 

Paul credited a number of people in his speech, including his wife; former USM president Aubrey Lucas; high-dollar donors Chuck Scianna and Joe Quinlan; the mayors of Hattiesburg and Gulfport, who were his former students; and the IHL board. 

In particular, Paul shouted out Tom Duff and Gee Ogletree, USM alumni and IHL board members who co-chaired the presidential search. 

“All I can say to y’all is that Mr. Duff is one persuasive individual, okay?” Paul said. “These two Southern Miss alums, along with their fellow trustees, have displayed courage, conviction and integrity through this process. They have listened and they have acted. They love Southern Miss, as we do, and all of these servant-leader trustees are going to help us take Southern Miss to the top.”

Flanked by several trustees and the IHL commissioner, Duff, who is serving as the IHL board president this year, also received a warm welcome before he introduced Paul. He remarked that the board is not used to a positive reception. 

“I’ve got to admit, this is the eighth time we’ve stood up here to have a person selected as an institutional head,” he said. “Mostly, we’ve had folks jeer at us, not clap for us.” 

Duff thanked the 15 members of the Search Advisory Constituency for their feedback. The advisory group had been criticized by rank-and-file faculty and staff who worried a lack of representation would lead IHL to pick a president who did not support them. In the three days since IHL announced Paul’s selection, some faculty who were critical of the constituency have expressed support for the new president. 

Duff told the audience that during the listening sessions, the advisory group had taken notes during the listening session and provided the board with an eight-page summary of qualities they wanted to see in the next president. 

“Not only did they write up the profile, they pretty much told us who it needed to be, and we appreciate that,” he said. “We’ve listened.” 

IHL hired a headhunting firm, Academic Search, for $130,000 to aid in the presidential search with the scheduled conclusion of spring 2023, according to the contract inked on Sept. 21. But IHL and Academic Search did not post formal advertisements for the position, IHL’s spokesperson Caron Blanton told Mississippi Today. She added that the board is now in the process of amending the contract.

Duff sought to assuage any criticisms of IHL expediting the search. 

“Oftentimes even though we have a path, we have to take responsibility and say no, that choice needs to be this, that decision needs to be that,” he said. “This is one of those situations. And we’ve probably been written up a couple times in the paper, I noticed, as not following our blueprint. But our blueprint is finding the best leader, it’s not following the blueprint.” 

Paul’s contract has not yet been finalized; in an email, Blanton said she would provide it to Mississippi Today once it is executed. 

The post ‘We’ve listened’: IHL welcomes Joe Paul as next USM’s president at campus event appeared first on Mississippi Today.