Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Mississippi’s former secretary of state, says current Secretary of State Michael Watson is wrong about a provision of the state’s voter ID law being missing from the state code books.
The voter ID law, which requires Mississippians show a government-issued photo ID at their polling place in order to vote, was added to the state Constitution by voters through the ballot initiative process in 2011. Lawmakers then codified the language into state law in 2012. Hosemann, who was secretary of state at the time, has touted the law and regularly boasted how it has never been challenged in court.
Following last month’s Mississippi Supreme Court decision that deemed the ballot initiative process unconstitutional, attorneys have been looking into whether the state’s voter ID law could be challenged.
Watson, in a recent radio interview, said one key provision of the voter ID law that was enshrined into the Constitution is not in state law: that any Mississippian can be issued free identification cards so they can vote. He argued that because that provision didn’t exist in state law, voter ID would be susceptible to a court challenge and that lawmakers should come back in a special session to add that “free ID” language to state law.
“Recent news articles have stated a provision of Mississippi’s voter ID law, allowing a Mississippian to be issued a free voter identification card, has not been codified in state law. Those articles are inaccurate,” Hosemann said. “The provision requiring a free voter ID card is provided for in state law.”
Hosemann then cited Mississippi Code Section 23-15-7, which states in part: “…No fee shall be charged or collected for the application for or issuance of a Mississippi Voter Identification Card. Any costs associated with the application for or issuance of a Mississippi Voter Identification Card shall be made payable from the state’s General Fund.’”
Watson issued a statement of his own Friday morning, saying: “Regarding Voter ID, the statutory provisions about Voter ID cards make specific references to the Mississippi Constitution. My concern about Voter ID being challenged stems from the fact it was originally passed by a ballot initiative and put into the Constitution by a process the court has now deemed unconstitutional in its recent ruling about the medical marijuana initiative process.”
Watson continued: “While I believe a challenge would fail for several reasons, the safest way to keep our Voter ID law intact and prevent it from being in jeopardy is for the Legislature to take quick steps to clean up the statutes instead of leaving it up to the judiciary to decide.”
Legislative leaders are discussing the possibility of coming back to Jackson in a special session to fix the ballot initiative process and possibly pass a new medical marijuana program — struck down when the Supreme Court ruled the ballot initiative process unconstitutional.
The only other ballot initiative passed since the state lost a congressional district is one that prohibits the state of Mississippi and local governments from taking private property by eminent domain and conveying it to private entities for a period of 10 years.
The eminent domain language exists only in the state Constitution, not in state law, and Watson believes it is susceptible to a legal challenge following last month’s Supreme Court ruling. He said last week it should also be handled in a special session.
“That one has to be dealt with,” Watson said in the same radio interview.
So far, no legislative leader has disputed that point.
The basic principles of the medical marijuana initiative approved by Mississippi voters in November — but struck down recently by the state Supreme Court — should be honored, members of the Senate Public Health Committee were told Thursday.
Ken Newburger, executive director of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, conceded to the committee that there are areas where the now invalidated Initiative 65 could be improved, such as allowing local governments more leeway in zoning medical marijuana dispensaries and not placing the entire program under the umbrella of the underfunded and under-resourced Mississippi State Department of Health.
But Newburger, who worked to pass the medical marijuana proposal, said any legislation passed in response to the Supreme Court striking down Initiative 65 should adhere to the principles of:
• Allowing broad access to medical marijuana.
• Giving doctors the authority to certify usage of medical marijuana where they believe it would be beneficial.
• Allowing the free market to dictate who could operate a medical marijuana-related business.
• Ensuring the medical marijuana program is self-sustaining.
The hearing of the Senate Public Heath Committee was the first since the Supreme Court ruled last month the medical marijuana initiative and the entire ballot initiative process invalid. Legislative leaders and Gov. Tate Reeves have discussed the possibility of a special session to consider both the reinstatement of the medical marijuana program and entire initiative process where citizens can gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide.
Both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, watched a portion of the hearing from the back of a crowded committee room at the state Capitol, but left before the hearing was completed.
Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said Thursday’s hearing was a step in determining the type of program the Legislature should consider. The issue that must be decided first, Bryan said, is what kind of program the state should have — a recreational marijuana program, a tightly controlled medical marijuana program or a loosely controlled medical marijuana program.
Asked if a special session could be expected soon, Bryan said, “I do not believe there will be a special session until there is some consensus between the House and the Senate. If I was governor, I would not call one before then.”
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, questioned whether it would be wiser just to approve a recreational program.
“There’s a dichotomy between what people want and what the science says,” Wiggins said. “Are we putting doctors in a position to do something that they don’t have the proper data to safely do?”
He asked, “Why don’t we just jump to recreational with this?”
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs, whose Department of Health was tasked with enacting Initiative 65 before it was struck down by the Supreme Court, said more regulation is needed in whatever the Legislature approves. He said there is research showing that marijuana is beneficial for some health issues such as nausea and vomiting associated with cancer treatments, but the research is inconclusive in other area. He said there are also risks with the use of marijuana, especially for children.
Dr. Larry Walker, director emeritus of the National Center for Natural Product Research at the University of Mississippi, said, “I do believe there are legitimate needs” for medical marijuana. “I think they should be met in a medical way.”
Walker said with the 2.5 ounces of marijuana allowed to be sold to a person every two weeks for medical purposes under Initiative 65, “You could get your whole family high every day and still have enough to sell 40 or 50 joints.”
Walker held up to the committee a 1-ounce bag of dried parsley to give perspective. He and Dobbs also spoke of the need to regulate the amount of THC, the active psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, used on a daily basis.
Dobbs said the state Board of Health that oversees his agency is opposed to the legalizing of the smoking of marijuana in most instances because of its health risks, though he conceded it appeared most people oppose that position.
Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, broached the possibility of allowing municipalities to ban the sale of medical marijuana by a vote of its citizens. Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, said that could penalize people who need marijuana for health reasons.
Shari Veazey, executive director of the Mississippi Municipal League, said she believed her organization would support an opt out provision for local governments.
The Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana language after it was challenged by the city of Madison and its mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler. The lawsuit claimed the initiative process was unconstitutional because it required the signatures to place an issue on the ballot to be gathered equally from five congressional districts, though the state lost a U.S. House seat after the 2000 Census and now has four.
OXFORD — We’ve heard much debate this week about whether Ole Miss should start All American Doug Nikhazy against Southeast Missouri (SEMO) in its Oxford Regional opener, or save Nikhazy to pitch against Southern Miss or Florida State.
Mike Bianco has decided to start young Derek Diamond Friday and hold Nikhazy for Saturday, which seems the right move to this observer. Your goal is to win the regional and this strategy gives the Rebels the best chance to do that. The key is to be 2-0 after Saturday. If you are 1-1, it doesn’t matter how you got there.
Rick Cleveland
Know this: Bianco would be criticized either way. That’s the nature of the beast.
What complicated this decision is the fact that SEMO – “probably the best 4-seed in the country,” Bianco said Thursday – has an ace of its own, senior left-hander Dylan Dodd, the Ohio Valley Conference pitcher of the year, also this week named a second-team All American by Collegiate Baseball.
Dodd can deal. He enters the regional with a 9-1 record, a 2.78 earned run average and 113 strikeouts in 90.2 innings. He has fanned eight or more in 12 of his 14 starts.
And I know what many will say: Yeah, but he pitches in the OVC, not the SEC. Well, Dodd struck out 10 over six innings against No. 1 ranked Arkansas at Fayetteville. He gave up only two runs and three hits and left with a lead over the Razorbacks who eventually rallied to win — as they so often do.
Mike Bianco
Said Bianco of SEMO Thursday in a pre-regional press conference: “They have an ace who would be the ace on almost any team.. … (Dodd) is a terrific left-hander with a dominant fast ball in the low 90s. He throws a curve, slider and change up, but the fastball is really good and beats a lot of people.”
Bianco added, “Fortunately, we have a guy like Derek who we believe can handle it.”
So this decision seems as much about Bianco’s confidence in Diamond as saving Nikhazy to pitch against a higher seed. It is also about matchups. For instance, Southern Miss, the 2-seed, has a batting lineup loaded with left-handed hitters and has struggled at times against lefties this season. The Golden Eagles might not have faced any lefty as dominant as Nikhazy has been this season.
Still, the main factor in Bianco’s decision is this: He believes his Rebels can beat SEMO and Dodd with Derek Diamond. So let’s examine. Diamond’s numbers will not blow you away. He recorded a 3-4 record this season with a 5.43 earned run average.
But Diamond’s pitching arsenal — his stuff — often will blow you and batters away. The 19-year-old Californian possesses a mid-90s fastball, and when he commands it, he can be overpowering. He pitched well against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament last week, allowing two runs and four hits over 5.1 innings while striking out eight. He pitched well at Georgia in his last regular season start. Diamond started fast this season when he was the winning pitcher against Texas, allowing one run on four hits over six innings, while striking out eight.
As his ERA would suggest, Diamond did falter at times later in the season, so much so that he was moved to the bullpen for a spell. He says he learned a lot about himself during that time and came out of it a better, more consistent pitcher.
“For me it’s been all about mindset,” he said Thursday. “I’m fired up. I‘m ready to go.”
Obviously, Bianco concurs.
“Derek is one of the best athletes on the team…” Bianco said. “He’s got tremendous stuff. He’s the total package. Sometimes we forget, he’s a freshman.”
Diamond is a freshman eligibility wise. He did pitch — and pitch well — last season before the pandemic ended the season.
“I’ve learned so much more about pitching and myself this season than I did last year,” Diamond said. “I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve learned this season.”
He doesn’t have to tell us. Friday, in the biggest game of this Rebel season and surely the biggest of his young career, he can show everyone.
Teachers at New Summit School, the Jackson private school whose owner is accused of defrauding the state and federal government, did not receive checks on their May 31 payday, marking more than two weeks without pay.
Because of how most of the employees spread their paychecks, the school owes each of them anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 for the work they’d completed by the end of May, according to three teachers.
The insecurity surrounding paychecks for teachers at New Summit began in late March, after a federal grand jury indicted school owner Nancy New and her son Zach New for allegedly defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education out of more than $2 million in public education dollars.
Now, at the request of New Summit parents, the News are transferring operations of the school over to a court-appointed custodian while they continue to await trial.
Three teachers who did not want their names printed for fear of retaliation told Mississippi Today that they are uncertain if they will be paid for the remainder of their contract, which runs through the end of July.
Nancy New technically stepped down from running the school after her separate arrest last year within an alleged welfare embezzlement scandal, Clarion Ledger reported, but several people involved with the schools told Mississippi Today that Nancy New continued to work from the Jackson campus often.
The state has paid New’s private school district about $837,000 since the beginning of this fiscal year, including two dyslexia scholarship payments in April and May, since the arrests, totaling $83,000. Federal authorities accused New of using public school dollars that her school received in earlier years to purchase her private home in north Jackson.
Much of the school’s public funding comes from Education Scholarship Accounts, which the state pays private schools quarterly on behalf of parents of students with disabilities. The next round of these payments is expected in late June.
New Summit School administrators told teachers during a staff meeting at the end of March that their paychecks were in jeopardy, but teachers continued to receive checks on time until this week. The teachers Mississippi Today spoke with earn salaries of around $40,000.
School leaders have not been forthcoming with teachers about the status of their paychecks, teachers said.
The administration has directed all questions to Roy Balentine, the interim director at New Learning Resources, the name of the umbrella school district. Balentine, former Pearl High School principal, has not communicated with New Summit teachers as a group regarding their pay for the May 1 to May 15 pay period or subsequent pay periods.
Multiple teachers interviewed for this story vocalized their frustration about the lack of communication from administrators over the last few months.
“We do not know if we are getting paid until the paycheck is in our hands,” one teacher said.
Despite this instability, teachers say they’ve attempted to maintain a positive learning environment for their students, evidenced by heartfelt Facebook posts.
“I held back many tears this week when I was asked by students, ‘What will happen to us? Where will we go? Will I see you again?’” one teacher wrote on May 19, the last day of the school year. “[New Summit School] was their home too. I watched as my beloved students trickled out the door today and wondered the same thing, what will happen to them? I hugged crying parents and students, uncertain of any reassurances I could offer them.”
Nancy New founded the school in 1997 to offer smaller classes and more individualized instruction to Mississippi schoolchildren. Her for-profit company and school district called New Learning Resources eventually encompassed six private schools, including an online diploma program. New Summit School began rapidly growing in recent years, and though it is not specifically a special education school, it had earned a reputation of catering to nontraditional students.
As New’s charges have received widespread attention, parents of New Summit students have worried about the school’s future and whether the specialized and renowned education their children receive at the school will continue. Both teachers and parents say that New Summit School has been an invaluable resource to the students with learning disabilities enrolled there.
Some teachers also expressed concern about whether they still have health insurance. One teacher told Mississippi Today that her insurance had lapsed already in March.
“Yes, we are ‘in this together.’ It is a bad situation for everyone,” a New Summit teacher wrote in an email to school leadership last week, “but as a single mom, my personal children deserve electricity, water and food. These are solely provided through the money I bring home.”
Balentine told teachers they could expect to receive more information regarding pay from Gary Herring, who will be taking over the school through a corporate custodianship, emails obtained by Mississippi Today show.
Parents of students at New Summit approached Herring, who served as the headmaster of First Presbyterian Day School for multiple decades, about six weeks ago, asking him to help them keep the school open through the end of the year.
“These are a bunch of very loyal and dedicated parents,” Herring said. “These parents are really seeking a solution as to what to do with these children in the future, whether the school becomes viable or they have other choices they have to make.”
A June 1 Hinds County Chancery Court order appointed Herring as the corporate custodian of the New Summit School, giving him full responsibility over all funds related to the school and all day-to-day operations of the school.
“I’ve been very impressed with these parents, and [felt] they needed help to find a solution to the needs of these autistic children,” Herring added. “And that’s what’s so important. And that’s the only reason I got involved was because I was trying to do something for the parents and the children.”
He will have the authority to fulfill the remaining contractual requirements of New Summit, including paying teachers the remainder of their salary, the order states. Hinds County Chancery Court Judge J. Dewayne Thomas signed the order Tuesday.
Once the criminal charges against the News were made public, much of the operating budget of the New Summit School was frozen. One of the goals of the court-managed custodianship is to free up those funds and allow the New Summit School to continue operations, according to William Matthew Thompson, attorney for the parent group.
Herring said he was not able to obtain much information about the status of the school prior to the order being signed, and therefore did not wish to comment on the future of the school.
On Wednesday, Herring sent an email to school staff saying that the custodianship would begin without any funds to make payroll, but that he had started seeking funds from the state and parents.
“Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of success,” he wrote.
Teachers and students do not know if the New Summit School will remain in operation next school year, sources said, leading many to already seek other employment or enroll in other schools.
Malcolm Stuckey was pulling up in a burgundy Pontiac Grand Prix to his friend’s birthday party in Chicago’s once-prosperous Englewood neighborhood when a bullet fired from a gun, bought 840 miles away in Mississippi, tore into his brain.
His killing in 2014 placed the 19-year-old college student, college basketball player and museum janitor among 2,581 people shot in Chicago, which recorded 4,133 shootings in 2020. The city has counted more than 1,100 shootings already this year, according to the Chicago Tribune.?
Those bullets generally aren’t being fired from guns bought legally in Chicago. States such as Mississippi are supplying hundreds of firearms originally bought from licensed shops and, eventually, illegally transported to the city. What helps to feed that pipeline are Mississippi’s lax gun laws that allow almost anyone to sell a firearm to any other state resident, making it difficult to track those weapons or prevent them from being trafficked to locales far outside of the South.
The Mississippi man who might have sold a Chicagoan the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol that killed Stuckey had been a repeat gun-buyer at a Natchez pawn shop whose owner didn’t detect any red flags during several years worth of transactions between the two of them. It’s difficult to know most customers’ intentions, said Finley Hootsell, of Eagle Pawn.
Unless a background check turns up just cause not to sell someone a gun, there are few reasons to deny that purchase, said Hootsell, adding he does the best he can to suss out a bad buyer.
“If there’s any question about any gun customer, there’s nothing that says I have to make that sale,” he said. “If you come in and you smell like a Cheech and Chong movie, you’re not getting the gun.”
An Innocent Caught in Gang Crossfire
That May 29, 2014, afternoon party was at 5722 S. LaSalle St., a two-story house divided into three apartments, situated a couple of blocks east of Interstate 94 and three miles straight west of the Museum of Science and Industry, where Stuckey worked. Vacant lots and rundown houses dotted that block in a neighborhood that whites had fled as Blacks started moving in decades ago.?
Before Stuckey arrived for an afternoon birthday party for Lamenda Jones’ son, Dayvon Bennett, a member of the Black Disciples gang, already was on site. He was chatting up other party guests until he spotted two rival gang members at the house and took off.
“Don’t start no mess in my house,” Jones, who was cooking for that celebration, told Bennett, witnesses said in police interviews.?
Bennett said he wasn’t planning to cause trouble: “I’m not on that.”??
He smiled at Jones, then left the house.
But Bennett, a 19-year-old rapper known as King Von, who had been in and out of jail since he was 16, didn’t let it go. He left the party, grabbed a friend and told a partygoer on the phone that he’d be back. Take the children inside, he said.
He returned to LaSalle Street with that .40-caliber Smith & Wesson purchased two months earlier in Mississippi by Jonathan Smalley, who’d amassed 32 guns in the Natchez area from 2009 to 2016. Chicago police recovered 11 of them, including Bennett’s, in their city, according to federal charges filed against Smalley in 2016.?
Stuckey, who friends and relatives said wasn’t in a gang, had just arrived at the party when Bennett and fellow Black Disciple Michael Wade got out of a friend’s Oldsmobile Alero a block away. Stuckey and other partygoers planned to shoot hoops nearby before returning to eat the food Jones had been preparing. As Bennett and Wade cut through an alley behind the house, Stuckey stepped onto the sidewalk to smoke a cigar.
One of Bennett’s rivals looked up and saw Bennett and Wade approaching the house. He fled. Firing at him as he ran, Bennett chased that rival toward LaSalle Street, prosecutors told a jury. By the time Wade got to the front of the house, Stuckey was face down on the grass between the sidewalk and street, bleeding out. He died in his work uniform.?
“Why you running?” Bennett had shouted while chasing his rivals, according to Wade’s police interviews. He and Wade kept firing; Wade hit one man in the foot. Bennett shot the other in the face, breaking his jaw. A few moments later the two were speeding away in the Alero.
Stuckey was declared dead at the scene at 6:09 p.m. Detectives notified his mother a few hours later. The other two shooting victims survived.
“He was supposed to be on his way to see me,” said childhood friend Diante Willis, who lived down the street from Stuckey. “He had stopped answering his phone.”
One Shooter Went to Prison; the Other was Shot Dead
Wade and Bennett were arrested about two months later. Bennett refused to cooperate with police. Wade, initially, turned on his friend, agreeing to testify against him. (Almost a year after their arrests, and months after Bennett allegedly used the Smith & Wesson in a separate shooting, police said they found the weapon in the possession of another Chicago man.)
But the case fell apart when Wade withdrew his promise to testify against Bennett. Bennett and Wade both were acquitted of murder, although Wade was convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm and sentenced to 28 years for the LaSalle Street shooting. He is appealing his conviction, his attorney said.?
Bennett was shot to death in Atlanta in November 2020 after arguing with another rapper.?
“My homie lost trial, he’ll be gone for awhile,” Bennett rapped in his song “The Code.” “If he give me up, then they letting him go.”
More than Any State, Mississippi Exports Guns Used in Crimes?
Stuckey likely would have enjoyed time with friends, eaten some food and gone home after the LaSalle Street party if Smalley hadn’t bought that Smith & Wesson in Natchez.
Mississippi ranked dead last on the Gifford Law Center’s latest gun law scorecard, earning an F for its lack of gun precautions and restrictions that might pare gun deaths. The state has the second-highest gun death rate in the country, the center notes, and exports more guns used in crimes elsewhere than any other state.?
“There’s too many legislators in Mississippi that are beholden to the gun industry,” said Laura Cutilletta, a gun law expert and managing director at the California-based center, named for gunshot survivor U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. It promotes gun control ordinances.?
In 2016, Mississippi allowed residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. A year later, Cutilletta said, the state achieved notoriety for exporting more guns than any other state.?
Jonathan Smalley, now 34, was within the laws of Mississippi when he bought dozens of guns from licensed shops, passing background checks each time. Where Smalley ran into trouble was mailing guns to buyers in Chicago, which, despite enacting some of the nation’s strongest anti-gun laws, has not managed to stanch the flow of firearms into that region.
Chicago police have seized about 7,000 “crime guns” every year since at least 2013, according to a University of Chicago study. That translates into about 250 guns for every 100,000 residents. That rate is six times that of New York City and 1.5 times that of Los Angeles.
The vast majority of those guns are bought legally at stores in suburban Chicago, neighboring Indiana and Mississippi, and, then, end up being used in Chicago crimes. About 5% of the Windy City’s illegal guns come from the Magnolia State, an amount exceeded only by the tally of illegal guns entering Chicago from Indiana and other Illinois locations.?
In 2019, 37% of the more than 15,000 guns recovered in Illinois, mostly after being used in crimes, were bought legally in the state, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In contrast, 61% of the 4,000 or so guns recovered in Mississippi were bought in that state. Illinois’ population was 12.8 million and Mississippi’s was 2.9 million, according to the most recent Census estimates.
Chicago’s restrictions have increased demand for illegal guns, and Mississippi’s lack of controls have let opportunistic sellers provide the supply.
“If you’ve got a demand for it, someone’s going to try to find a way around it and make some money off of it,” said Kurt Thielhorn, special agent in charge of the ATF’s regional office in New Orleans, which covers Mississippi. “If you can buy a firearm for $300 or $400 and drive it to Chicago and double your money, you can understand why people would do that.”
“You’re not going to buy unless you trust that seller”
The Mississippi-to-Chicago pipeline is rooted in community and kinship connections extending from prior decades of Black migration, by the hundreds of thousands, from the South to the North. Private gun sales often come down to trust, said Johns Hopkins University’s Daniel Webster, director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research. He compared it to finding a favorite restaurant.
“How do I know which of these places I can trust and go eat sushi? Until I know that, I ain’t buying,” Webster said. “It’s the same with guns and Chicago’s guns market. You’re not going to buy unless you trust that seller.”
Federal investigators never disclosed where Jonathan Smalley bought the Smith & Wesson pistol that killed Malcolm Stuckey, only that it was purchased in Natchez on March 29, 2014. Chicago police haven’t said where Dayvon Bennett got the gun. He did, police said, fire it 12 times into a man — he survived — a couple of miles from the house where Stuckey died.?
Police took the same pistol off another man almost a year later, in March 2015, in an unrelated arrest.?
Smalley, who in 2018 was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison, bought at least some of his guns from the Natchez Pawn Shop that Finley Hootsell owned until opening up his current Natchez location, Eagle Pawn.?
“Ol’ Jonathan,” Hootsell said, was clean-cut and well-spoken.?
As a licensed gun-dealer, Hootsell is required to run background checks on potential buyers. He had no idea Smalley was involved in anything nefarious until ATF investigators later told him so.
“He would just buy guns one at a time over a length of time,” said Hootsell, who did not remember which guns he sold Smalley. “It’s not like he walked in and said, ‘Give me a dozen of those.’ That would have been a flag.”
Mississippi has just two gun bans: No guns are legally allowed on college campuses. Felons cannot legally buy firearms.
Gun buyers can be as young as 18 years old if they’re accompanied by a parent, or if they’re under 21 and active or veteran military personnel. But that’s the extent of the state’s restrictions on sales. If the FBI completes background checks that gun-dealers order immediately, a customer can walk out of a shop with a gun within 15 minutes.?
If someone wants to buy a gun from a guy on the street, no background check is required.??
Compare that to Chicago, which has no gun stores in the city limits, or California, which has 107 gun-control laws, according to Boston University researchers.?
Notwithstanding the hundreds of guns that find their way from Mississippi to Chicago, the Magnolia State isn’t the only problem for the Windy City. According to the University of Chicago, suburban Chicago gun shops account for the bulk of guns used in all city crimes. The largest share sold by any single source came from a shop in Riverdale, Illinois — population 16,000 — that supplied nearly 7% of those guns from 2013 through 2016.
Without stricter federal laws, few obstacles keep people from buying guns in other states and driving them hundreds of miles to Chicago or other cities. “It’s not even just a state problem,” said Kim Smith, director of programs at the University of Chicago crime lab. “Interstate travel is just a staple of American life.”
“This isn’t crack cocaine or meth; this is legal commerce”
The lack of prevention means investigators often are tracking guns that have already killed or injured people such as Malcolm Stuckey, a bystander. In Jonathan Smalley’s case, for instance, investigators only connected the legally bought guns to Mississippi after they had been recovered following subsequent crimes.
“This isn’t crack cocaine or meth; this is legal commerce,” said Kristen de Tineo, the special agent in charge of ATF’s Chicago office. “The biggest challenge we have is identifying that point when legal commerce transitions to illegal commerce.”
That ease of trafficking makes it difficult to stem the violence on Chicago streets. Many residents just shrug and accept the risks, said Diante Willis, Stuckey’s friend.
“It’s everywhere,” he said of the gun problem. “It can happen any time. You learn to look over your shoulder.”
Malcolm Stuckey Mostly Avoided Chicago
Stuckey grew up going to church in Chicago with his family. Outside of that and showing up for his museum job, he avoided the city, said his sister, Madaesha Stuckey, 29. He knew to watch his back when he did venture there, she said, and he was never involved in gangs or guns.
Stuckey was a peacekeeper, said his 18-year-old half-brother, Gotti Wallace.
“I used to be in a lot of fights and he would come grab me,” Wallace said. “We’d go hoop and take it off my mind.”
At Crete-Monee High School in suburban Chicago, Stuckey stood out as a tenacious basketball player, even after a knee injury forced him to wear a brace, said Eric Green, a Crete-Monee security guard at the time. Stuckey seemed always to be laughing and smiling, Green said.
“He was one of those kids who knew a lot of his classmates,” Green said. “You know, the band member or the show choir, the kid who doesn’t get much recognition. He was friendly with everyone.”
This article is jointly published by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, and supported by The Kendeda Fund. JJIE, a nonprofit news organization, is solely responsible for the content and editorially independent of its funders. Reporter Matt Krupnick is at matt@mattkrupnick.com.
On Friday, May 14, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated ruling that strikes down the Medical marijuana program enshrined in the state constitution by voters in November. The ruling also voids — for now — the state’s ballot initiative process that allows voters to take matters in hand and pass constitutional amendments.
We asked readers what they thought about the decision. Here’s what you said.
Scroll to view some select responses, or click a question below to skip ahead.
How do you feel about the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the ballot initiative process?
“It was the wrong thing to do. People voted on it—why did we bother?”
“The most anti-democratic experience in my lifetime. The exact opposite of Democracy.”
“I feel it was the wrong decision. Once the item became on the ballot, the ballot initiative process became somewhat moot, and the people spoke.”
“It overturned the will of the people. It doesn’t matter if I was for or against it; the initiative system is supposed to be the voice of the people.”
“It seems like the correct decision to me. We don’t have five congressional districts any more, so it’s not possible to gather signatures from five districts if we only have four.”
“It was the wrong to do. People voted on it—why did we bother? Bad message to send in a state that has always struggled to get the vote out.”
“It was the correct decision. The problem lies with the legislature (as always) who should have long ago fixed the problem.”
“It has robbed Mississippi voters of their say based on a technicality in state law. No matter the initiative, issue, or topic, voters have been stripped of this power by a privileged few who chose to ignore the spirit of the law in favor of the technical language of the law. The commonsense voting public needs a way to effect policy in a state like Mississippi where our leaders often fail to act on important issues based on their own selfish political calculations. We’ve now been stripped of this power to effect change.”
“I have never written to a state legislator before, but I did tonight.”
“I am horrified, saddened and angered by the decision. The new provision offered desperately needed relief to many who are suffering from chronic pain and a variety of health problems. And now their suffering must continue.”
“I could care less about the particular initiative personally, though I imagine that it would be of assistance to some people. My concern is with the Mississippi Supreme Court overturning any initiative that has already been voted upon and approved by the citizens of Mississippi.”
“I find it interesting that other initiatives were passed and this issue wasn’t brought up. I think the Supreme Court did its job, but this shows how broken our system is.”
“I have never written to a state legislator before, but I did tonight. I felt the need to express my extreme discontent with how the initiative 65 ruling has gone down. I just want to say that if the will of 74% of the voters in Mississippi is not taken into account, it will be a sad day for Mississippi.”
“I get both arguments, but at the end of the day, 74% of the voting population made it will known. regardless of any idealistic belief you may hold, the will of the people is what the constitution is designed to protect, not the will of a person.”
“It’s not just about the medical Marijuana initiative. It’s the point that it was voted on and it has now been shot down.”
“It’s constitutionally correct. The failure is the legislators.”
Giving voters the opportunity to restore the old flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem in its design
Replacing the 1890 flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem
How do you feel about these initiatives being voided?
“It’s voter suppression at its finest.”
“I feel that direct ballot initiatives are a great way for the people to directly choose what they want, and the decision to take that away is a travesty.”
“If the initiative dealing with medical marijuana is unconstitutional, then the others are as well, right? How can we avoid that assumption? This is why we need to move quickly to begin the constitutional amendment process.”
“While I do not agree with all of the initiatives being presented, It is still our right to have a chance to vote as a whole and decide.”
“Whether I agree with these initiatives or not, it’s an injustice to not be able to ask the citizens of Mississippi to voice their opinions through a vote. It’s voter suppression at its finest.”
“While I may not agree with all those initiatives, I should be allowed to voice my opinion at the ballot box.”
“The initiative process may need to be updated or changed in some way(s), but I lean towards giving voters more options for putting matters on the ballot as that might put more pressure on elected officials to do their jobs when in session.”
“I am okay with these initiatives being voided. The public shouldn’t be making public policy… that is why we have elected legislators in our representative republic.”
Two Black students at West Point High School were initially named top of their class and later made to share the honors with white classmates.
A dispute over grade calculations at West Point High School has ignited intense community debate and allegations of racism after two Black students were initially named top of their class and later made to share the honors with white classmates.
Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple, two Black students at the high school, were named valedictorian and salutatorian of their class at a senior awards ceremony last Thursday, several days before graduation.
But after a white parent questioned school officials about whether they were following guidelines in the school handbook in determining the top students, Superintendent Burnell McDonald named two other students — who are white — as co-valedictorian and co-salutatorian on Thursday morning, the day of graduation.
McDonald told Mississippi Today the high school guidance counselor was new to the school and was given incorrect information about how to determine the designations. The counselor selected the two students based on quality point average (QPA), which is measured on a 4.0 scale, instead of a strict numerical average of the students’ semester grades over their high school career, which the district defines as its grade point average (GPA), he said.
McDonald said he looked at how valedictorian and salutatorian had been determined in past years and saw it was based on a 0-100 scale, or what the school refers to as GPA. The initial calculation was not conducted the proper way, he said.
But the handbook a few pages later says GPA “is calculated by averaging the grade point weights assigned to semester averages,” which are 0.0 through 4.0. It goes on to say “Some classes may be weighted double see guidance counselors for this information..” (sic)
A few pages earlier, under “Class Rank,” the handbook simply says “A student’s rank in his/her graduating class will be calculated by averaging his/her semester averages.”
“(The parents’) argument was that based on our handbook, we should’ve been using semester averages,” he said. “And when you generate the report from the system, it clearly shows the two white students would’ve been first and second based on that number.”
McDonald continued: “If someone assumes I was discriminatory in my decisions, they are absolutely wrong. I don’t know if you can tell on the phone, but I’m African-American myself… This is not based on who the parents are, the race of the kids — it’s based on doing what’s right for all students.”
When contacted by Mississippi Today, Synethia Mathews, the 2018 valedictorian of West Point High School, echoed McDonald, saying it’s her understanding she was chosen based on her overall GPA. Attempts by Mississippi Today to reach other former valedictorians and salutatorians from the school were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Angela Washington and Lakira Temple, the mothers of the Black students, have questions.
“I’m still baffled,” said Washington, who said she and Temple had a meeting with the West Point High School principal, an assistant superintendent and McDonald at lunch on the day of graduation. She said in that meeting, McDonald told her different information — that based on how the school has made its calculations in the past, her and Temple’s daughters would be ranked first and second.
“What it looks like is because the handbook doesn’t specifically say GPA (grade point average) or QPA (quality point average), to make the other side happy, he changed the rules on his own,” said Washington, who has requested a meeting with the school board this month.
On page 10 of the school’s 57-page handbook, under the heading “Class Rank,” it states only: “A student’s rank in his/her graduating class will be calculated by averaging his/her semester averages.” But in a separate district-wide policy detailing how dual enrollment and dual credit courses are calculated, it uses a 4.0 scale to “determine QPA and GPA calculations,” which some say means the district has not always defined GPA as a 0-100 score.
McDonald and other school officials admit the policy is unclear and needs to be better defined, but in the case of the four students, the damage had already been done. He then decided the fair thing to do was to name all four valedictorian and salutatorian and allow all to speak at graduation.
That way, he pointed out, all of the benefits from receiving the titles – such as scholarship offers to colleges – would be available to all of them.
Washington said she and Temple found out about the other valedictorian and salutatorian on social media and did not receive a call from the school. Both mothers said the daughters were not explicitly told either, but instead were asked to return their stoles to the school without explanation.
Temple said her daughter is deeply disappointed.
“The superintendent made her feel as if she wasn’t as smart as the other kids, and that she shouldn’t believe that she’s on their level,” she said.
Washington said Ikeria “has suffered public humiliation, pain and suffering, and emotional distress” as a result of the confusion and lack of communication.
At the graduation ceremony on Thursday, McDonald took the stage at the beginning and apologized.
“Nobody else deserves to be ridiculed for the decision that I made … I pray, I ask you humbly, if there’s a problem that you have with anything, or whatever’s been said, charge it to me and please don’t charge it” to anyone else, he told the crowd.
Ikeria, Layla and the two other students, Emma Berry and Dominic Borgioli, then gave their speeches before the graduates walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. Layla’s speech hinted at the controversy.
“I’m so very grateful, honored and humbled to be the true class of 2021 salutatorian,” she began.
A Facebook Live recording of the ceremony garnered almost 1,000 comments, many of which accused school officials, Berry, Borgioli and their families of cheating Layla and Ikeria out of their honors because of race.
But McDonald and Melissa Borgioli, the mother of co-valedictorian Dominic, said this has nothing to do with race. They also said the rumors — including that McDonald was coerced into making the decision — have gotten out of hand.
“Because those two young ladies are African American and my son and the other person are white, it’s become a racial issue when it’s strictly a ‘the counselor did not use the correct policy and the school wouldn’t admit it’ issue,” said Borgioli, who said she and her family have been threatened on social media and by calls to her home.
A similar situation in Cleveland School District led to lawsuits. A senior filed suit against the district in 2017, alleging that school officials forced her to share the 2016 valedictorian title with a white student despite her having a higher GPA. The judge ultimately ruled that while the school may have erred, a federal civil rights violation was not committed.
Another lawsuit brought by Olecia James, a former student at Cleveland Central, alleged she was stripped of the salutatorian honor for fear of white flight. Her case is still pending in federal court.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ Chief of Staff Brad White, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, has been chosen to run the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
“Brad has a proven track record in managing governmental affairs on the federal level as well as the state level,” Transportation Commission Chairman Tom King said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge of the legislative process and staff management. He will certainly be an asset to MDOT and we look forward to working with him to move Mississippi’s transportation infrastructure forward.”
White was chosen by the three-member, elected Transportation Commission, and is subject to confirmation by the state Senate. Last month, Central District Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons reported that the commission had received five applications for the job, all from people in state.
Other applicants included Jeff Altman, a longtime MDOT employee who’s been serving as interim director of the agency, and Heath Hall, owner of a public relations firm who has served as a consultant to Madison County and its sheriff’s department. Hall was briefly deputy administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration but abruptly resigned after being accused of improperly being paid by the federal agency and Madison County at the same time.
White formerly served as chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and the late Sen. Thad Cochran. He was formerly a chief of staff for the state auditor’s office and served as chairman of the state Republican Party from 2008 to 2011. He served as an assistant to former Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall from 1999-2005.
In a statement, White said, “I feel in some ways like I’m coming home. MDOT has always been a special place for me. I look forward to what we can accomplish together working with the Transportation Commission and MDOT staff.”
In a recent interview with Mississippi Today, White said both his prior experience with MDOT and in dealing with transportation issues and funding on a federal level in U.S. Senate offices have prepared him for the job.
White replaces longtime MDOT Director Melinda McGrath, who announced her resignation in March under political fire from state lawmakers. Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, have been critical of MDOT for cost overruns, delays on projects and other issues and proposed a bevy of legislation this session aimed at stripping the agency of money and authority. Lawmakers stripped MDOT of its commercial traffic enforcement division.
On Wednesday, White said it is his intention for Altman, who had been serving as assistant to McGrath, to stay on at the agency, but that he had not yet met with Altman.
Reeves in a social media post congratulated White and MDOT, and said, “It’s a new day in our state! And it’s a great day for transportation and economic development in Mississippi!”
“The last 17 months have been the most difficult of my professional career,” Reeves wrote. “One storm (literal and otherwise!) after another … The one person that has been there helping us navigate this difficult terrain since literally the day after Election Day is Brad White. My chief of staff since Day 1 but my friend long before that. I couldn’t be more proud of him for this new challenge he has accepted.”
