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Author’s note:  Delta State University will retire former head baseball coach Mike Kinnison No. 15 jersey in a ceremony Saturday at Harvey Stadium-Ferriss Field prior to the 2 p.m. doubleheader against the University of Alabama-Huntsville.  
 
Kinnison guided the Statesmen to the 2004 NCAA Division II national championship, six College World Series appearances and 15 NCAA South Regional appearances. His Delta State teams won 981 games, while losing only 313 for a 75.6 win percentage. He averaged 42.5 victories per season.

The story of Kinnison’s journey from team manager, to All-American shortstop, to national championship coach was detailed in Mississippi Today columnist Rick Cleveland’s 2008 biography of Boo Ferriss: “Boo: A Life in Baseball, Well-Lived.” That chapter follows:

The most succinct and telling way to describe Mike Kinnison’s success as Delta State’s baseball coach is this: No coach at any level of NCAA baseball – ever – has won a higher percentage of his games. In college baseball 40-win seasons are considered the gold standard. Kinnison’s teams routinely win 50 games.

The story of how Kinnison, the hard-working son of a Yazoo County farmer, found his way to Delta State and eventually came back to his alma mater is worth telling and re-telling. As you might guess, Boo Ferris is a huge part of the story. The two form a two-man mutual admiration society.

Kinnison first met Boo Ferris when Ferriss spoke at the Benton Academy athletic banquet Kinnison’s senior year of high school. “Coach made such a strong impression, not just about baseball and sports but about life and planning for your future,” Kinnison said decades later. “That was in 1973 and I remember thinking even then that Coach Ferriss would be a great person to play for.”

But Kinnison was not college baseball material at that point. A late bloomer, he spent his first two years out of high school at Holmes Community College where he played football and baseball as a freshman and basketball and baseball as a sophomore.

“Baseball was what I loved,” Kinnison said. “I asked my coach to put in a word for me at Delta State. He said he would call Coach Ferriss.”

Ferriss promised Kinnison a chance to walk on and try out.

“So I went to Delta State and registered and showed up for the first baseball meeting, and Coach told us we would have open tryouts,” Kinnison said. “I looked around and saw about 70 guys there and that’s when it dawned on me that I was a little bitty fish in great big pond.”

Making matters worse, Kinnison had spent the previous summer away from baseball. He needed money to pay his tuition, so he worked off-shore on an oil rig. You can’t take much batting practice in the Gulf of Mexico. Kinnison was more than a little rusty when he arrived at Delta State.

“Delta State was a much more advanced program than anything I had ever seen,” Kinnison said. “I’ll give you an example. I had never in my life hit off a pitching machine. Anybody who has ever played baseball will tell you how different that is. I don’t think I impressed anybody. Coach gave me an extended look, but I just didn’t do enough.”

Said Ferriss, “We had a veteran team coming back. We were loaded. I just didn’t have room for Mike. I loved everything about coaching except for cutdown day. I hated telling a boy that he couldn’t play the game he loved. I just hated that part of it.”

“I was devastated,” Kinnison said. “It was the first time I had ever been told I wasn’t going to be able to play ball. Coach caught me between classes and asked me to come to his office. Well, I knew what was coming. He was as thoughtful and polite as he could be, thanking me for my effort. I’ll never forget him saying that I came up a little bit short – just a little bit short, he said – and he wasn’t going to be able to keep me. I’m not going to lie to you. It hurt. Man, it hurt. I just couldn’t imagine life without baseball.”

Kinnison had pretty much resigned himself to just that. Then, a week later, he was walking from one class to another when Ferriss drove by and then pulled over to the side of the road.

“Coach asked me how things were going and then he told me had some spots for people top help him and that there was some scholarship money involved,” Kinnison said. “He was talking about being a manager, and he told me to get back to him.

“Well, I didn’t have any intention of doing that. It was a pride thing. But I kept thinking about it and I knew I was going to have to get a job any way to help pay for school. He was offering some money. I had to work somewhere and I decided to take the job as a manager. That decision was the turning point in my life.”

Instead of fielding ground balls, Kinnison smoothed the infield so others could. Instead of taking batting practice, Kinnison shagged balls for others. Instead wearing a baseball uniform, Kinnison washed them.

“I won’t sugar-coat it,” Kinnison says. “It wasn’t any fun watching those other people play. As a manager, you do whatever needs to be done. It was great preparation really, although I didn’t look at it that way at the time. I learned how to work on the field. I learned about the science of growing grass, the different chemicals you use. I saw the pride Coach had in the field and how it looked. And I can tell you what else I learned. I learned to appreciate the managers and support people.

“I’d sneak in the cage and hit when nobody else did,” Kinnison continued. “I’d shag guy balls during the batting practice. The biggest thing is I saw the mental and physical maturity you had to have to play at that level. By then, I pretty well knew I wanted to coach some day, and I knew I was at the footsteps of a master.

“I learned so much about strategy and how you handle players and pitchers. I remember Coach telling men that the people on the bench are the ones you have to spend time on. Those out on the field are involved in the game. You have to spend time with the ones who aren’t in the game, make sure they stay interested and focused. I’ve never forgotten that. Coach is still the best I’ve ever been around at the strategy of the game, about having a feel for different matchups, when to use certain players.”

Kinnison was like a sponge. He soaked it all in – all that and more.

“I can remember we’d be on a road trip and Coach would pull over some place and go in and spend five minutes with somebody to thank them for something they had done for the program,” Kinnison says. “He’d always remember to take every opportunity to stay thank-you. He told us you can never say thank-you too much.”

Whether he knew it or not, Kinnison was making an impression on Ferriss, too. “Mike was one of the best managers I ever had,” Ferriss says. “He was a worker and he was smart. Man, he’s smart. But the main thing is he worked. You never had to tell him twice to do anything.”

Kinnison remembers that Ferriss never failed to thank him for all that work. “More than once he’d come up to me as I was finishing washing and drying and hand me a 20 dollar bill,” Kinnison says. “He’d tell me, ‘Go eat a steak tonight. You earned it.’”

Kinnison also earned a nickname that spring as a manager. Whenever it came time to rake the infield dirt, Ferriss would call it “scratching” – as in, “Mike go out there and scratch around first base where it’s wet.”

One time, Kinnison mumbled under his breath that he was sick and tired of that word “scratch” and that he hoped he never heard it again. One of the graduate assistant coaches heard him and jumped on it. Mike Kinnison became “Scratch” Kinnison.

But that summer Scratch Kinnison played semipro baseball with a team in Greenwood that included several Delta State players. He worked out regularly, too, doing hundreds and hundreds of pushups and swinging a heavy bat regularly. The work paid off.

He got bigger, stronger. His line drives became gappers. He did so well that reports filtered back to Ferriss. Still, Kinnison figured that when he went back to school, he would be going back to be a manager.

Ferriss had other ideas, as he explained years and years later. “I’ll never forget where I was sitting when I made the decision, right here in the living room,” Ferriss said. “I told Miriam (his wife), I said, ‘I’m going to give Mike a shot. He’s earned it. I think he can help us.’”

The next morning Ferriss called Kinnison and told him to meet him at the field. “Mike came over and jumped out of his car like he was ready to work on the field,” Ferriss said, smiling at the memory. “He said, ‘What do we need to do Coach?’”

Ferriss put his arm around Kinnison’s shoulder, pulled him close and told him: “From now on you’re not a manager, you are a player. I think you can help us, and I know you will work hard.”

Kinnison cried that day. More than a quarter century later, tears welled in his eyes as he told the story.

“At 1:30 that afternoon, Mike was the first one on the field,” Ferriss said. “He hit the ground running and he hasn’t stopped since. He helped us win, and he’s still winning.”

In those days, Delta State players were able to order their gloves from a company at a discount. Kinnison didn’t have the money to order a glove, but when the shipment of gloves came in, Ferriss handed one to Kinnison and told him, “You can pay me back some day.”

Says Kinnison, tearing up again, “You don’t forget things like that.”

It is an amazing, inspiring story – the stuff Hollywood makes up. The team manager became the team’s star. He cracked the lineup, first in right field, then second base and finally shortstop.

“Mike lived in the batting cages,” Ferriss said. “He made himself into a player. Heck, he led the nation in doubles.”

Kinnison helped the Statesmen reach the College World Series both his junior and senior seasons. He made All American as a senior in 1978 when he batted .343 with 25 doubles and 56 runs batted in, leading DSU to a second place finish. In the national semifinals, Kinnison knocked in the winning run off future Atlanta Braves closer Steve Bedrosian to send the Statesmen into the finals.

Most coaches will tell you the third spot in the batting order is where you put your surest hitter. Mike Kinnison batted third his entire senior season. He never came out of a game.

“There were a lot of games where he got way ahead of the other team, and Coach would substitute almost an entirely new lineup,” Kinnison said. But he never took me out, not once. He never said so, but I always felt like he was saying, ‘Son, you’ve sat enough.’”

It was at about that time Kinnison told Ferriss he wanted to be a coach. Says Ferriss, “I knew for certain Mike would be a good one.”

Ferriss took a keen interest in the post-college lives of all his players. Kinnison was no exception. A math scholar at Delta State, he became a high school coach and math teacher. Ferriss followed his career closely.

“No matter where I was coaching, it wasn’t anything to see Coach pull up in his car at a game or even a practice,” Kinnison says. “If he couldn’t stop by, he’d always call. And he wasn’t doing that just for me. He was doing it for so many of his guys who have gone into coaching. Now I’m a coach and when I think about how he did that it’s just mind-boggling.”

Kinnison coached in the high school ranks at Lee Academy, Jackson Prep and Madison Central. His teams won three state championships and nearly 80 percent of their games. In 1994, he returned to Delta State as an assistant coach to another former Delta State player, Bill Marchant. Marchant had been paralyzed from the chest down in an automobile accident but courageously continued to coach for three seasons with Kinnison’s help. Marchant and Kinnison guided the Statesmen to an impressive 138-36 record and two College World Series berths in those three seasons.

Then Kinnison took over as head coach and Delta State got even better. Says Ferriss, “Mike Kinnison is the best coach I have ever seen at any level of the sport. I don’t care where you put him, he would be successful. He’d be successful because he’s so smart and he works at it so hard.”

Kinnison will tell you he has made one mistake since he returned to Delta State.

“At first I tried to be just like Coach Ferriss,” Kinnison says. “I tried to keep up with every player’s family, the brothers, the sisters, all the birthdays and everything Coach has always done. I finally figured out I couldn’t do it. That’s not me. That’s Coach Ferriss and that’s why he’s special,”

In fact, Kinnison is a distinctly different coach that Ferriss, much more intense, much more fiery than the man who taught him so much about the game.

Despite all the success both men enjoyed – and Marchant as well, for that matter – there remained a huge void in the baseball trophy case until May of 2004. Despite winning so many games, so many conference titles and so many NCAA regionals over the years, Delta State still lacked the biggest trophy, the one that goes to the national champion.

“We had come so close many times, I was beginning to wonder,” Ferriss said. “But I knew if anybody could win one, Mike Kinnison would.”

Judson Thigpen had been one of Kinnison’s Delta State teammates and one of Ferriss’s top pitchers. Jud Thigpen, Judson’s son, was the national player of the year, the centerfielder on that 2004 team. Jud Thigpen helped the Statesmen overcome a five-run deficit in the semifinal game and play their way into the championship game against Grand Valley State.

The next day’s Clarion Ledger described the scene this way:

MONTGOMERY — Forty years ago, 42-year-old Boo Ferriss carved a baseball diamond out of a Delta bean field. He had a vision: Delta State would have baseball program second to none.

Here Saturday night, Ferriss watched through tears as his dream was realized. “I don’t cry much,” Ferriss said. “I couldn’t help myself tonight.”

He was not alone. The movie Field of Dreams had nothing on this real-life scene from old Paterson Field:

Delta State’s Scott Ellison strikes out the final batter to clinch Delta’s 12-8 national championship victory over Grand Valley State. Green-jerseyed Delta players charge toward Ellison and pile on one another, creating a human mound on top of pitcher’s mound. Coach Mike Kinnison, national championship trophy in hand, vaults over the dugout and then climbs a few rows up into the grandstand where he presents the trophy to Ferriss, his former coach, who has big tears running down his face.

“That wasn’t meant to be showy,” Kinnison would later say. “That was spontaneous, just the way I felt, and I think the way everybody who knows anything about Delta State feels about Boo Ferriss. He’s Delta State baseball. He’s the guy who laid the foundation. He’s the one who built the program to what it has become and he’s still there today, doing anything and everything he can to make it better.”

A modest crowd of 2,428 watched Delta State finally win a national championship after eight previous trips to the World Series. Probably 2,000 were Delta State fans. A hundred or more were former Delta State players.

“I told our guys before the game that they were playing for everybody who has ever worn this Delta State uniform,” Kinnison said. “I want everybody who has ever worn this uniform to enjoy this tonight.

“We’ve had so many good teams that have achieved so much, but we’ve always come up short before. We’ve been here a few times, and we’ve always left disappointed. This has been a long time coming and I want everybody to enjoy it.”

Delta State fans stayed in the stands and celebrated long after the game. More than an hour later, guys like Barry Lyons and Chris Burgess couldn’t talk about what had transpired without choking on their words.

Lyons, a former Major Leaguer, tried. “Delta State baseball is special,” he said. “We all know we are part of something very special and we all know who made it that way. I’m like everybody else. I’m happy for me. I’m happy for the program, but I am happiest for Boo Ferriss. He, more than anyone, deserves this moment.”

Two years later, Kinnison talked about what the championship had meant to him and why.

“That night I just felt like I had the chance to do what every player who has ever come through the program would want to do if he had a chance,” Kinnison said. “It was spontaneous, but I’m not going to tell you that I hadn’t thought of some day handing him a national championship trophy because I had.

“You know, we saw it every day as players under him,” Kinnison said. “He taught us so much about baseball, but he taught us more about how to live our lives. He talked about being polite, saying thank-you, giving it your best, but, more importantly, we saw it all in him. We saw the way he lived his life, the way he treated people. That was the most important lesson he taught any us.

“I think about this all the time. Coach could have just driven on by me that day, but he stopped. And it changed my life.”

The post Delta State retires Kinnison’s jersey; they’ll never retire his remarkable story appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read the story behind the cartoon here.

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Fevers can be a scary thing for anyone regardless of age or relative health. But when your child gets a fever, it can be downright terrifying. New parents are especially susceptible to panic when their sick child has a fever, and they often feel the need to immediately rush to the emergency room for treatment.

In fact, one study indicated that up to a third of pediatric emergency room visits occur because of concerns about high fever. The vast majority, however, don’t actually require emergency attention. That same study determined that parents’ lack of understanding about what a fever means was the primary reason for panic.

What is a Fever?

Before being able to knowledgeably determine whether or not a fever is truly dangerous, it’s helpful to understand what exactly a fever is. A fever, also technically known as pyrexia, is defined as an increase in body temperature beyond the normal range. Normal body temperature can vary based on a variety of factors, including age, gender, level of exertion, emotions, and even the part of the body used to measure temperature. The normal range that covers these factors is understood to be between 97.7–99.5 °F (36.5–37.5 °C). Even though anything above that range could be considered a fever, most healthcare providers define it as 100.4 °F when taken with a rectal thermometer (100 °F taken orally or 99 °F taken under the armpit).

Beyond being a measurement, a fever is also often an indicator of an immune response to a pathogen or illness. When the body’s immune system senses some types of infection, for instance, it causes the body to generate and retain more heat in order to benefit the body’s fight against the pathogen. This response is closely linked to the kind of tissue inflammation you experience when you have the common cold; while the sensation of a fever (or a runny nose) is unpleasant in the moment, it simply means that your body’s immune system is functioning properly.

When Should You Worry?

As noted above, any elevated temperature above the normal range can be considered a fever, but doctors and other healthcare professionals don’t become alarmed until the child’s temperature is 104°F or above. The primary reason for this is that a fever lower than that almost always represents a normal, healthy response to whatever illness is affecting the body. In other words, anything under 104°F shouldn’t be cause for concern and wouldn’t require a visit to an emergency room.

In fact, the specific temperature measurement alone is often not as effective as evaluating additional symptoms. If your child has any kind of fever in addition to the following signs and symptoms, you should call 911 right away:

• too weak to move or stand up
• won’t wake up
• severe trouble breathing and can barely speak or cry
• red or purple spots/dots on the skin
• any other indications of a life-threatening emergency

Most of the above symptoms are rare and can happen regardless of how bad a child’s fever is, so if your child’s symptoms include any of these, you shouldn’t wait until the fever gets higher. There are other signs and symptoms related to a high fever that can be a cause for concern. If your child is experiencing any of the following, it is recommended you seek medical care like that provided by TrustCare Kids, an urgent care facility dedicated to walk-in pediatric care:

• fever over 104 °F (or any fever in children younger than 12 weeks)
• trouble breathing
• trouble swallowing
• chills and shaking
• dehydration
• weak immune system (pre-existing condition)
• fever lasts longer than 3 days
• fever returning after no fever for 24 hours
• has febrile seizures (they are usually not serious and pass within a few minutes)

Potential Causes of a Fever

There are numerous potential causes of a fever in kids, but the fever is always a symptom of some other illness or disease. Most fevers are caused by some kind of infection, including both bacterial and viral pathogens. Infectious diseases like meningitis, influenza, and other upper respiratory tract infections are often behind an increase in body temperature as just a normal part of immune system function. Chickenpox, tonsillitis, and ear infections are also some common childhood ailments that might cause a run-of-the-mill fever. It can also be a symptom of COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus.

Perhaps surprisingly, another possible cause of a fever is simply being overheated. Sometimes, out of concern for cold weather, excess bedding or clothing (or swaddling in infants) can actually raise the child’s body temperature enough to trigger a fever. Though much rarer, certain medications, brain diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases may also be the reason for a fever.

When and How to Treat a Fever

When a child has a fever, many parents understandably experience a strong urge to “fix” the problem as quickly as possible. As noted earlier, however, sometimes a fever is actually a good thing in that it represents a natural, healthy immune process that the body uses to heal. In such cases, the only recommended treatment is to let the fever run its course. In fact, using medication or other treatments to force a reduction in body temperature can actually have the opposite effect and cause the illness to linger longer or even increase in severity. This is why watching and waiting for some of the other signs listed here is often the best course of action.

There are times when the fever is high enough to cause significant discomfort for the child (usually around 102°F) but not high enough to require immediate medical attention (104°F). A fever with a temperature in this range may cause chills, sweats, aches, irritability, or a loss of appetite. In such situations, there are a few remedies that can bring comfort and relief for the child until the fever comes down on its own:

• acetaminophen
• ibuprofen (Advil)
• analgesic (Tylenol)
• dress the child more lightly so that less body heat is trapped
• push fluids like water or juices (or popsicles!)
• lukewarm bath
• NO aspirin (it can lead to a condition called Reye’s syndrome)

TrustCare Kids is Here to Help!

We know how scary it can be when your child gets a fever, but the good news is that most of the time the danger of bigger problems is pretty low. Sometimes, though, other symptoms are present, and you’re just not sure whether it’s a passing concern or a serious illness. TrustCare Kids was created to be a valuable resource for parents when you need help answering that question.

TrustCare Kids is open seven days a week with convenient hours, and it is specifically designed to provide for pediatric primary care and pediatric urgent care. If your child has a fever and you’d like to bring him or her in to get checked out, you can either make an appointment to see a pediatrician or walk in to receive pediatric urgent care; simply visit TrustCare Kids for further information on each.

The post Why does my child have a fever? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Pediatric care means providing answers and guidance throughout your child’s growth. That’s why we strive to build lasting relationships with parents so they can raise safe, healthy kids. Our primary care pediatricians will take the time to provide you with the information you need to make treatment decisions and better understand your child’s medical condition.

Comprehensive primary care is designed to keep your child healthy — now and in the future. Our Kids Clinic treats acute and minor conditions in children by providing quick medical attention seven days a week for extended hours, when your regular doctor may not be available. We are designed to save you unnecessary (and unpleasant) trips to the emergency room, and ensure that your child will be seen by a pediatric specialist (which is often not the case when visiting the ER). For fevers to nasty weekend scrapes, avoid the emergency room and head to TrustCare Kids where we’ll see to it your child will feel better faster.

Patient Profile: Phoenix Harmon (Age 4)

My 4-year old daughter, Phoenix, was having horrible pain in her toe so we took her to see Dr. Cathie Phillippi at TrustCare Kids. The doctor took her temperature, and Phoenix did have a fever, prompting Dr. Phillippi to suspect her toe was infected. 

She referred us to UMC for treatment, where they ran tests and determined there was no infection. So we returned to TrustCare Kids, where Dr. Phillippi gave Phoenix a shot and ran some more tests, and advised that we keep Phoenix at home until a proper diagnosis could be determined.  

Dr. Phillippi then called an orthopedist to rule out the possibility of a bone infection—using her connections to get us an appointment the next day. The orthopedist ran tests, but still no conclusive diagnosis.  

Dr. Phillippi asked us to visit her again—and the third time was the charm. Dr. Phillippi’s swift and attentive care enabled her to identify the problem and heal Phoenix’s toe before her condition worsened.

So, in less than one week’s time, Dr. Phillippi had used her connections to refer us to UMC and a top orthopedist in town, and treated us three times herself at TrustCare Kids. She was so on top of it throughout the entire healing process. She even gave me her cell phone number and asked that I contact her at any time with questions or updates. We have never received this level of caregiving from Phoenix’s regular pediatrician. 

We love Dr. Phillippi so much, and her staff is fantastic. They are all so great with children. Phoenix is only four years old and, when they took her blood sample and gave her a shot, she hardly felt that anything was happening. Truly amazing!!  

~ Candie Harmon, Phoenix’s mom

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Gov. Tate Reeves was frugal with his veto stamp this year, axing one bill and line-item vetoing four projects across the state the Legislature had funded.

Reeves gave no explanation for why he vetoed the specific projects, but one is in an area represented by a top lawmaker who challenged his veto authority in court last year.

Last year, by contrast, Reeves vetoed the bulk of the state’s public education budget, major criminal justice reforms and some of the Legislature’s spending of COVID-19 federal relief money.

His line-item vetoes of COVID-19 spending last year prompted House Speaker Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro-tem Jason White to sue their fellow Republican Reeves saying he overstepped his line-item veto authority. The state Supreme Court sided with Reeves in the case, a ruling that appeared to weaken legislative authority and strengthen gubernatorial authority.

Reeves, before his Thursday, midnight deadline to do so, line-item vetoed a $4.5 million project to four-lane Mississippi 12 from Durant to Kosciusko. The measure was included in the Mississippi Department of Transportation budget, House Bill 1413.

White, R-West, whose district includes part of the vetoed highway project, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

READ MORE: Gov. Reeves signs parole eligibility bill, after last year’s veto

Reeves also line-item vetoed three smaller projects included in the Capital Expense Fund in Senate Bill 2948. These are:

• $500,000 for the city of Greenville for downtown park improvements

• $50,000 for the city of Scooba for improvements to sports and athletic fields

• $50,000 for the town of Mathison for improvements to its baseball park and facilities.

These projects were among dozens included in the $97-million Capitol Expense Fund list, including similar parks and recreation projects in other cities, such as $600,000 for phase two of a sportsplex in Sumrall. $50,000 to improve Veterans Park in Ashland and $75,000 for park improvements in the town of Lula.

Reeves in his veto messages gave no reason why he singled out the projects for his line item vetoes. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

READ MORE: Reeves vetoes education budget, criminal justice reforms, COVID-19 spending

Reeves also vetoed Senate Bill 2624, a bill that revamped state Real Estate Commission rules and created a pilot project for administrative hearing officers appointed by the attorney general to hear and decide cases of agents accused of violation of commission regulations.

In his veto message, Reeves said that while he felt the bill did make some “positive changes to current law,” he doesn’t believe final commission authority for violation hearings should be handed off to administrative officers.

The post What did Gov. Reeves veto this year? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland is launching its first major exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of MTV, the music video television network that inspired a cultural awakening.

The exhibit, called MTV Turns Forty, will focus on the role of media executive and Jackson native Bob Pittman, who led the team that created MTV in August 1981. The exhibit will feature artifacts from music legends like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Run-DMC and Aerosmith.

“I’m pleased and proud that my home state of Mississippi is hosting an exhibition to celebrate the 40th anniversary of MTV,” said Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc. “Mississippi and MTV are two of the great formative influences in my life, and I’m delighted that they’re coming together for this anniversary celebration.”

MTV Turns Forty will debut on May 14, 2021, and will be on display at the museum through summer 2022. ViacomCBS — the parent company of MTV — and Hard Rock International are supporting the exhibit along with Jon Bon Jovi.

Editor’s note: Mississippi Today board of directors member Tom Pittman — Bob Pittman’s brother — is involved in the planning of the MTV Turns Forty exhibit, and Mississippi Today board member Andy Lack is on the Grammy Museum Mississippi’s national advisory board. The Maddox Foundation, which is supporting the exhibit, is a donor of Mississippi Today.

The post Grammy Museum Mississippi exhibit will mark MTV’s 40th anniversary appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For nearly two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has chipped away at harsh punishment for juveniles convicted in homicides. 

In 2005, justices banned death sentences. Seven years later, they concluded in Miller v. Alabama that life without parole sentences for these juveniles should be rare, given only to those who are “permanently incorrigible.” In Montgomery v. Louisiana they made that decision retroactive. 

But on Thursday the conservative-majority court reversed that trend, concluding in a 6-3 decision that courts could sentence juveniles to life without hope of parole, even without a finding that a juvenile was permanently incorrigible.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that this decision didn’t overturn these precedents, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed, saying the ruling “guts” these decisions. 

“The Court simply rewrites Miller and Montgomery to say what the Court now wishes they had said, and then denies that it has done any such thing,” she wrote. “The Court knows what it is doing.” 

In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged this problem, saying it “would be simpler to reject Montgomery in both name and substance.” 

Will Bardwell, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the decision “wipes out nearly a decade of legal precedent and opens the door to arbitrary decisions that will punish the criminal justice system’s most vulnerable participants: children. A child who commits a terrible mistake deserves the opportunity to show that she has changed and need not die in prison. But the Jones decision abandons those children.” 

He hopes elected officials will now “cure this travesty,” he said. “They should act boldly and quickly.” 

Thursday’s decision could affect the future of the 87 juveniles sentenced to life without parole in Mississippi before Miller. More than two-thirds of them are Black. 

Since that 2012 decision, eight of a dozen Mississippi juveniles convicted of capital murder have received life-without-parole sentences. All but one are Black. 

On Nov. 3, justices heard arguments involving Brett Jones, who received a life without parole sentence in Mississippi for stabbing his grandfather to death during an argument. He was 15 at the time and said he acted in self-defense. 

In his decision, Kavanaugh noted that, when the knife Jones was using against his grandfather broke, he grabbed another knife and kept stabbing. 

“Jones did not call 911,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Instead, he haphazardly attempted to cover up his role in the murder.” 

A jury convicted Jones of murder, and he was automatically sentenced to life without parole. 

The Mississippi Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing where the judge could consider Jones’ youth and other factors in deciding the sentence. 

In that hearing, Jones’ lawyers detailed his home life, which included being choked and beaten. They also described how he had changed since conviction, earning his GED. 

Despite that evidence, the judge sentenced him again to life without parole. 

Jones’ lawyers argued to justices that the sentencing judge needed a finding of permanent incorrigibility, but Kavanaugh concluded otherwise: “The Court has unequivocally stated that a separate factual finding of permanent incorrigibility is not required before a sentencer imposes a life-without-parole sentence on a murderer under 18.” 

To prove her point that the high court had reversed precedents, Sotomayor quoted from the Miller decision: “A lifetime in prison is a disproportionate sentence for all but the rarest children, those whose crimes reflect ‘irreparable corruption.’” 

She detailed how juveniles are less mature, more impulsive and more susceptible to outside pressures: “As individuals mature, the impetuousness and recklessness that may dominate in younger years can subside.” 

She questioned why the Miller decision has been reduced to considerations of a juvenile’s youth and nothing else. 

“Such an abrupt break from precedent demands ‘special justification. The Court offers none,” she wrote. “The Court is fooling no one.” 

Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter for the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that is exposing wrongdoing, educating and empowering Mississippians, and raising up the next generation of investigative reporters. Sign up for MCIR’s newsletters here. 

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Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday signed a bill into law that will allow thousands of people in prison in Mississippi to become eligible for parole — an effort to address the state’s prison crisis of overcrowding, inhumane conditions, harsh sentences and federal scrutiny.

Reeves’ approval comes after he vetoed a similar measure last year, with some law enforcement, prosecutors, lawmakers and others saying it went too far.

“Criminal justice reform,” Reeves said on social media Thursday. “It means a lot of different things to different people. A measured approach to 2nd chances is good — a knee-jerk reaction can harm public safety. My #1 focus in these troubling times will always be to protect MS communities.

“My conservative (legislative) friends that voted against this bill did so based on valid concerns,” Reeves said. “I share many of them which led to last year’s veto. I also believe in 2nd chances. I trust my Parole Board appointees to make wise decisions. SB2795 was not an easy call for me. But, at the end of the day, I believe it meets my standard for a measured approach, & with proper implementation, it can be a net positive for MS. Therefore I signed SB2795 into law earlier today. May God bless Mississippi!”

Among the problems cited by Reeves last year when he vetoed similar legislation is that it would grant parole for those convicted of murder and sex offenses. Legislators said those issues were fixed in this year’s version of the bill.

Currently, people convicted of nonviolent crimes in Mississippi must serve at least 25% of their sentence before parole eligibility. The new law says that for crimes committed after June 30, 1995, a person would have to serve at least 25% or 10 years before eligibility.

The bill would make those convicted of armed-robbery parole eligible after serving 60% of their sentence or 25 years, whichever is less. Currently armed robbers convicted after 1995 are not eligible for parole. In addition those convicted of car-jacking and drive-by shootings would have the same parole eligibility standards.

Those convicted of violations deemed violent crimes committed without a weapon, such as simple robbery or burglary, would be eligible for parole after serving 20 years or 50% of their sentence, whichever is less. They currently have to serve 50%. And some convicted of possession of drugs or of selling drugs and those convicted of some other nonviolent crimes would be eligible after serving 10 years or 25%, whichever is less.

“It gives those inmates some hope – hope that one day they might get out if they live up to the conditions spelled out in the bill,” said Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, the author of the bill. “It is not a get out of jail free bill. You have to earn your way out.”

Barnett said as many as 3,000 of the state’s roughly 17,000 people now in prison could become eligible for parole within three to five years under the new law.

“And it is good for the taxpayers of Mississippi because it provides the opportunity to save some money and correct a system that is not working. It is an overall good bill for the state of Mississippi.”

House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, has worked in recent years to ease sentencing guidelines to reduce the prison population so that the state can better deal with a potential lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice over the conditions of the Mississippi prisons.

“I think we took a big step today moving the needle toward fixing our Corrections system,” Bain said. “I think we sent a message that we are serious about fixing our problems.”

In Alabama, a similar prison crisis has resulted in taxpayers facing a $1 billion bill to meet federal mandates to fix the system.

Barnett added, “A lot of people worked on this – Republicans and Democrats. It shows we can put politics and partisanship behind us and work for the good of the state.”

Criminal justice reform in Mississippi — with the second-highest incarceration rate in the country — has been supported by a growing coalition of conservative and progressive groups.

“Legislative leadership and stakeholders from across the criminal justice system worked very hard this year to craft meaningful parole reform that puts public safety first while providing opportunity for rehabilitated individuals to earn redemption,” said Russ Latino, president of the conservative-leaning Empower Mississippi. “In signing this bill, Gov. Reeves is helping to address the overcrowding problems created by the Clinton-Biden Crime Bill in the mid-1990s. It should be seen as a signal to the Department of Justice that we are prepared to get our own house in order, without costly federal intervention. This is a smart on crime, soft on taxpayer conservative reform.”

FWD.us state director Alesha Judkins in a statement said: “Today is a big day for Mississippians across the state, particularly for people and families who sadly, know firsthand just how devastating the state’s incarceration crisis is, and who have, alongside other advocates, pushed to ensure meaningful opportunities for release for their loved ones. 

“These reforms will help Mississippi begin to address its dangerously high prison population and high imprisonment rate. By expanding parole eligibility, the state has joined several other Southern states in passing common-sense criminal justice reform measures that have safely reduced prison populations and decreased crime rates at the same time.”

But the measure was a tough sell in the Legislature — other criminal justice bills died this session — and faced opposition from some law enforcement and other groups who said it would allow dangerous criminals out early and ignores the rights of victims of crimes.

READ MORE: Reeves vetoes education budget, criminal justice reforms, COVID-19 spending

“I don’t have a problem with giving people a second chance,” said Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune. “But this includes violent crimes, not just nonviolent. These people were sentenced under one set of rules, with victims told how long they’d get and judges issuing sentences thinking they were based on day-for-day, and now the rules changed. It sends a mixed message to victims. I’m not for letting armed robbers and armed carjackers out after 60% of their sentence.”

Hill said Reeves staff had told several senators that Reeves said he would veto the bill

Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, said he voted against the bill because he was urged to by constituents and law enforcement in his district.

“I represent my district. The governor represents the state as a whole and a majority of senators across the state supported the bill,” McMahan said, adding he would support an early release program that required people who gained the release to work and have a mentor.

The post Gov. Reeves signs parole eligibility bill, after last year’s veto appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Greatest athlete in Ole Miss history? My guess in 99% of Rebels would blurt “Archie Manning” before the question is completed.

Hard to argue: Manning was an All American quarterback and also an outstanding shortstop in baseball. And then there’s Jake Gibbs, also an All American quarterback so gifted in baseball the New York Yankees paid him $100,000 to sign to play baseball instead of football. That was back when Mickey Mantle was the highest paid player in baseball at a salary of 100 grand.

Manning vs. Gibbs is an argument I’ve heard many, many times through the years. Charlie Conerly, still another All American quarterback and a slugging center fielder, surely deserves to be part of that conversation. At Ole Miss, quarterbacks always seem to take center stage.

But the guy who is quite possibly the greatest athlete in Ole Miss history didn’t even play football — not at Ole Miss, anyway. He would be Donnie Kessinger, whose baseball jersey No. 11 will be retired Thursday night when the Rebels play LSU in the first of a three-game series. The truth is, Ole Miss could have done a two-for and retired Kessinger’s basketball jersey (23) at the same time. He was that good — a consensus All American in both sports.

How good was Kessinger? Glad you asked:

• His .436 batting average in 1964 remains the best in Ole Miss history. His .400 career batting average remains the highest, as well. Yes, and he was a better fielder than hitter, a six-time All-Star shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, twice a Golden Glove winner as the best fielding shortstop in the league. He once set a Major League record, playing 56 consecutive games at shortstop without committing a single error.

• In basketball, he twice led the Southeastern Conference in scoring and had a career scoring average of 22.2 points per game. In 1967, after Kessinger had played for the Cubs for three seasons, Babe McCarthy, coach of the New Orleans Buccaneers in the old American Basketball Association, flew to Chicago to offer Kessinger a basketball contract. Never mind that Kessinger hadn’t played basketball in several years. McCarthy had coached against Kessinger when McCarthy was at Mississippi State. He knew what Kessinger could do.

• Yes, some Ole Miss fans surely will say: “But Kessinger didn’t play football.” Well, here’s the thing: He could have. He was an All-State quarterback at Forrest City, Ark., and led his team to an undefeated state championship season as a senior.

Count Larry Higginbotham, who pitched at Ole Miss when Kessinger played shortstop, among those who believe Kessinger could have played football — “or run track” — at Ole Miss. “Don was such a great athlete, he could have done anything he wanted,” Higginbotham said.

“We always heard that Coach (Vaught) had tried to get Don to come out for football but that Don was dead-set on baseball as a career,” Higginbotham said. 

Said Kessinger himself, “I’d see Coach Vaught around campus and he’d say something like, ‘When are you gonna come out and get behind center.’ I never knew if he was joking or not, but I had my mind made up about pro baseball. That was my dream. Besides, it wasn’t like Ole Miss had a shortage in quarterbacks back then with Glynn Griffing, Doug Elmore, Jim Weatherly and all those guys.”

Kessinger no doubt could have played wide receiver, too. He was quick and fast, a great leaper with great hands — “quickest, surest hands I ever saw,” Higginbotham said.

Higginbotham remembers one time at the old Ole Miss baseball field when an opponent lifted a foul ball behind the bleachers on the third base side. From shortstop, Kessinger dashed off the diamond, around the bleachers, and caught the ball. “There weren’t many people there,” Higginbotham said, “but he got a standing ovation.”

Archie Manning remembers watching as a young teen Don Kessinger play basketball in the old gym at Ole Miss. “What I remember is that it seemed like his hands dangled down around his knees because he had such a long wingspan,” Manning said. “And I remember he was far and away the best player on the floor, one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen to this day.”

Years later, when Kessinger was with the Cubs and Manning was at Ole Miss, the two practiced baseball together. “Leo Durocher wanted Don to to switch-hit and learn to bat left-handed,” Manning said. “I wanted to switch-hit and learn to hit right-handed. I remember the two of us in the gym, pitching to each other with tennis balls.”

My own memories of Don Kessinger begin with watching him play for those great Cubs teams of the 1960s with Ron Santo at third, DK at short, Glenn Beckert at second, Ernie Banks at first, Randy Hundley behind the plate and slugging Billy Williams in the outfield. Kessinger remains the best I ever saw at going deep into the hole, back-handing a ground ball on the outfield grass, leaping and simultaneously throwing a strike to first base. It was like ballet.

Since then, I have covered Kessinger as the Ole Miss baseball coach, his sons Keith and Kevin as terrific Ole Miss athletes and grandson Grae, soon to be a Major League shortstop. And here’s the thing about all those 40-plus years of knowing Don Kessinger: As great an athlete as he was, he remains a nicer person — modest almost to a fault. You’d never learn from him he was two-sport All American or a six-time All-Star shortstop.

“I owe so many people so much,” Kessinger, 78, said Wednesday. “I’ve been blessed and fortunate.”

Those of us who watched him play surely can say the same.

The post Was Don Kessinger the best Ole Miss athlete ever? So glad you asked. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jackson resident Omar Travis was released from prison about four years ago after being convicted of receiving stolen property. Before that, in 1991, he was convicted on a burglary charge.

This legislative session, Travis was among the 21 former people convicted of felonies who House leaders decided should have their voting rights restored. The only way to have voting rights restored in Mississippi is through legislative action or gubernatorial pardon, which is why Travis was relieved when the House passed his suffrage bill.

But Senate leaders killed his bill along with 18 others, ultimately deciding to pass just two of the House’s proposed suffrage bills.

Travis, who now works as a mental health technician counseling troubled youth in a clinic setting, was obviously disappointed by the outcome.

“This country was founded on no taxation without representation,” Travis said. “We are supposed to be ‘returning citizens.’ That is the phrase that has been coined. But why should a citizen not have the right to vote?”

Mississippi is in the minority of states — less than 10 — where voting rights are not automatically restored for people convicted of felonies either after they complete their sentence or at some point after completing parole or probation. 

The state now denies a higher percentage of its residents the right to vote because of felony convictions than any state in the country, according to a recent study. In Mississippi, 235,150 people — or 10.6% of the state’s voting age population — have lost their right to vote, according to a recent study by The Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit that advocates for voting and criminal justice issues. Since 2016, Mississippi has moved from second to first highest percentage in the nation.

And there are grave effects particularly on Black Mississippians. The prohibition on voting is part of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution — added as one of several attempts to prevent Black Mississippians from voting. With African Americans still being disproportionately convicted of crimes, that continues to be the effect of the disenfranchisement language.

A 2018 analysis by Mississippi Today found that 61% of the Mississippians who have lost their rights to vote are African American, despite the fact that African Americans represent 36% of the state’s total voting-age population.

Had the Senate had passed those 21 House proposals this year and sent them to Gov. Tate Reeves, it would have been the most bills restoring suffrage to people convicted of felonies passed by the Legislature since 2004. That year, 34 people had their voting rights restored through the legislative process.

Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said when he was appointed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to chair the Judiciary B Committee, he discussed with Hosemann what criteria should be used in passing suffrage bills out of the committee.

Fillingane said it was agreed that the committee would steer clear of bills restoring voting rights to those convicted of violent crimes and those convicted of embezzling public funds. That was the criteria, Fillingane said, used during the 2021 session, resulting in the Senate passing only two of the 21 bills approved by the House.

House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, who passed the 21 bills ultimately approved by the House out of his committee, said the criteria used by the Senate Judiciary B Committee was basically the same as what he used.

“We did pass some convicted of violent crimes, but they were old convictions,” Bain said.

The events of the 2021 session highlight the chaotic and inefficient manner of tasking the Legislature with restoring voting rights on a case-by-case basis.

Norman Ivey of Florence is in the same boat as Travis. The House passed his suffrage bill in the 2021 session, but the Senate ultimately killed it. Ivey said he was convicted of multiple crimes: burglary of an occupied dwelling, aggravated assault and possession of precursor chemicals to manufacture crystal meth.

“I spent all my junior years locked up before then,” Ivey said. “I was raised by drug addicts… I did not stand a chance.”

Despite those odds, Ivey eventually did turn his life around. Ivey now has a job and questions why he should not have the right to vote like other taxpaying citizens. Ivey said he has been trouble-free for about 12 years, owns a plumbing business and works with a non-profit tutoring troubled youth.

“What do you have to do to get this right back?” Ivey asked. “I pay taxes regularly. I have a business I pay taxes on. I pay taxes on my house. Yet people say I have no say in who represents me. I have no voice.”

Both Travis and Ivey credited their Christian faith in turning their lives around. The 2021 session was the third for Travis to attempt to get a bill passed to have his voting rights restored. The 2021 session was Ivey’s first attempt to regain his voting rights.

The Constitution contains a list of crimes for which a person convicted of a felony loses voting rights. Disenfranchising crimes include: arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, theft, timber larceny, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, statutory rape, carjacking and larceny under lease or rental agreement.

There are other crimes, such as crimes connected with the sale of drugs, where a person convicted of a felony does not lose the right to vote and actually is eligible to vote while incarcerated.

“Until recently, I didn’t even know what path to take” to get voting rights restored, Ivey told Mississippi Today.

The two bills that did pass this year were allowed to become law without Gov. Reeves’ signature. Bain, the House committee chairman, said he plans to have hearings on the issue this summer.

Rep. Chris Bell, the Jackson Democrat who sponsored the suffrage bill for Travis, said people should have their rights restored at some point after finishing their sentence “after they have paid their debt to society.”

“We’re always talking about second chances,” Bell said. “But having voting rights restored is giving someone a second chance.”

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