MS: Mississippi’s sodomy law cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars, but remains on the books

Source: dailykos.com 7/6/24 Mississippi coughed up more than $400,000 this year to attorneys who sued the state over an unconstitutional sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex, and if a similar suit is filed in the future, it could pay even more money. The Legislature appropriated and paid the fees to civil rights attorneys from multiple legal organizations after Mississippi Attorneys General Jim Hood and Lynn Fitch spent years defending the antiquated sodomy law—Mississippi Code Section 97-29-59. But Mississippi could be on the hook for even more fees, according…

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MS: Mississippi Police Arrested a 10-Year-Old for Peeing Behind His Mom’s Car. Now, the Family Is Suing

Source: reason.com 2/26/24 Third-grader Quantavious Eason was arrested and charged as a “child in need of services” after being caught peeing behind his mother’s car.  After her 10-year-old son was sentenced to “adult” probation for public urination last year, LaTonya Eason has filed a lawsuit against the police officers who arrested her son, claiming that their actions amounted to excessive force and inflicted “physical and psychological injury” on her son. In August 2023, LaTonya Eason attended a meeting at a Senatobia, Mississippi, law office, leaving her two children, including 10-year-old…

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MS: 10-Year-Old Kid Offered Probation for Peeing Behind His Mom’s Car

Source: reason.com 12/20/23 His mom is rejecting the prosecutors’ absurdly strict probation rules. A Mississippi 10-year-old has been sentenced to three months’ probation for urinating behind his mother’s car. But the boy’s mother is refusing to sign his probation agreement, citing the stringency of the agreement’s terms. “It’s just a regular probation. I thought it was something informed for a juvenile. But it’s the same terms an adult criminal would have,” Carlos Moore, the family’s attorney, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “We cannot in good conscience accept a probation…

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MS: Attorney To File Federal Lawsuit Over Black Child Arrested For Urinating In Mississippi

Source: huffpost.com 12/14/23 An attorney in Mississippi is preparing to file a federal lawsuit after a 10-year-old Black child was arrested and sentenced to a three-month probation for urinating in public. Police in Senatobia, Mississippi, arrested a third grader who urinated outside his mother’s car in August. The child’s mother, Latonya Eason, was in a meeting in a nearby building when an officer came inside and told her that he’d seen her son relieving himself. Eason told HuffPost she then went outside to ask her son why he’d done that,…

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MS: Lifetime voting ban for felony convictions struck down in Mississippi

Source: abcnews.go.com 8/4/23 Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court’s 2-1 decision will restore the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians, according to the plaintiff’s council Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The court ruled Thursday in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according…

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MS: Mississippi to pay more than $400K in attorneys’ fees over unconstitutional sodomy law

Source: mississippitoday.org 7/28/23 Mississippi will have to pay more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees after the attorney general’s office spent years defending a sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex.  The law in question — Section 97-29-59 — was deemed unconstitutional in 2003 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Lawrence v. Texas that private sexual conduct was constitutionally protected.  But Mississippi kept its sodomy law on the books, opening the door for a 2016 legal challenge that resulted in the expensive attorneys’ fees.  The AGs office,…

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MS: AG Fitch Statement on the Creation of the Mississippi Vulnerable Person Abuse Registry

Source: yazooherald.net 3/20/23 Attorney General Lynn Fitch recently issued the following statement after Governor Tate Reeves signed into law SB 2652, a law creating the Mississippi Vulnerable Person Abuse Registry: … Similar to the sex offender registry, under this new law, people who have been convicted of abuse, neglect or exploitation of a vulnerable person will be required to register with the Vulnerable Person Abuse Registry or face additional penalties. Read the full article  

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MS: Youth Pastor Pleads Guilty to Molesting Girl Decades Ago

Source: hottytoddy.com 12/5/22 A pastor pleaded guilty Monday to touching a child for lustful purposes 38 years ago, avoiding prison time; however, he will forever be listed as a sex offender. Wade _____, of Corinth, stood with Oxford attorney Ray Garrett before Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Gray Tollison on Monday and told the judge he understood the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty and that he was pleading guilty because he was “guilty of the charge.” _____, 60, was sentenced to five years in prison; however, the…

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MS: George, Greene counties recognized for keeping sex offenders 100% compliant

Source: wkrg.com 10/14/22 GEORGE COUNTY, Miss. (WKRG) – Employees from the Sheriff’s offices in both George and Greene counties were recently recognized for their work to keep all registered sex offenders in their jurisdictions compliant with state law. “[Citizens] should definitely be proud of these counties. They are really working hard to ensure that their communities are as safe as possible and everyone is aware of the registered offenders in their area,” said registry director Megan Costilow. Most sex offenders must re-register and update their address every three months. Each…

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MS: AG Fitch Continues to Fight ALI Proposal to Weaken Laws on Sexual Assault, Human Trafficking, and Sex Offender Registration

Source: mageenews.com 3/2/22 Attorney General Lynn Fitch this week wrote The American Law Institute (ALI) to ask its members to again defer consideration of proposed revisions to Section 213 of the Model Penal Code (MPC) that would weaken the ability of States to prosecute sexual assault, abuse, and exploitation; human trafficking; and sex offender registration. “Laws against child exploitation, human trafficking, and sexual assault need to be tough to protect the young and vulnerable from predators,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “The ALI is weakening the laws, just when we…

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MS: SB2448 Blocks Medically Frail Prisoners Who Committed Sex Offenses From Being Paroled to Special Care Facilities

Source: mississippitoday.org 2/28/22 Mississippi Republicans have balked at expanding Medicaid, but are embracing legislation that would take advantage of the federal program to pay for healthcare for very sick incarcerated people… … Sex offenders and people on death row would not be eligible. Read the full article  

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MS: Mississippi Town Chose Sex Offender as Its Christmas Parade Grand Marshal

[newsweek.com – 12/17/18] Residents of small town in Mississippi said they do not care that its Christmas parade grand marshal has been listed on the sex offender registry in two different states. Michael Clay Saripkin, a convicted sex offender, served as grand marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade on December 11. Some residents of the Mississippi town told local media that they saw no problem with Saripkin’s role in the Christmas parade. Carolyn Whaley, owner of The Eclectic Emporium on Main Street, told WMC that everyone in town knew Saripkin…

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MS: Some People to Be Removed From Mississippi Sex Offender List

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — About 30 people will be removed from Mississippi’s sex offender list after the state agreed that people convicted under a Louisiana law no longer have to register. However, the legal challenge continues for at least one man who’s on the registry because of convictions under Mississippi’s own statute banning consensual oral and anal sex. Full Article

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MS: Sex offenders could pay for trooper school under new bill

JACKSON, MISS– One of the main talking points of this legislative session is the incredible shortage of state troopers. Representative Tom Miles told News Mississippi just how critical the shortage is Monday, outlining that only 489 highway patrolmen are on the roadways, and 189 of those are ready to retire. The state needs an ongoing school for state troopers, and the idea has pitched to the state legislature before. The problem has always been how to fund it. Representative Andy Gipson has a solution, at least a long term one. Tuesday, House…

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MS: Registered Sex Offender Emerges as Star College Football Player

A registered sex offender has emerged as a star player on a top tier college football team, resuming his athletic career after being expelled from the Air Force Academy where he was court-martialed for sexual assault. No NCAA rule prevents a person with a criminal conviction from playing college athletics, a spokesperson told ABC News. It is left up to the individual college or conference to determine eligibility. Full Article

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FTR – sentenced to life without parole

____ ____ ____, who was convicted last week for failure to register as a sex offender, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Thursday. Fifteenth District Attorney Hal Kittrell said ____ was given a life sentence because of his status as a habitual offender. He said ____ has been convicted of three previous felony charges in Pearl River County before being convicted for failing to register as a sex offender last week. According to a press release from the District Attorney’s office, ____ had previously been convicted for child molestation…

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