[ White representatives vote to create white-appointed court
system for Blackest city in America]
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ONLY IN MISSISSIPPI  
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Bobby Harrison and Adam Ganucheau
February 7, 2023
Mississippi Today
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_ White representatives vote to create white-appointed court system
for Blackest city in America _

Rep. Kathy Sykes, D-Jackson, left, asks Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia,
a question concerning infrastructure during a special session of the
Legislature at the Capitol in Jackson Monday, August 27, 2018., Eric
J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

 

A white supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense,
four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and an
expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city
in America — that would be appointed completely by white state
officials.

If House Bill 1020
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becomes law later this session, the white chief justice of the
Mississippi Supreme Court would appoint two judges to oversee a new
district within the city — one that includes all of the city’s
majority-white neighborhoods, among other areas. The white state
attorney general would appoint four prosecutors, a court clerk, and
four public defenders for the new district. The white state public
safety commissioner would oversee an expanded Capitol Police force,
run currently by a white chief.

The appointments by state officials would occur in lieu of judges and
prosecutors being elected by the local residents of Jackson and Hinds
County — as is the case in every other municipality and county in
the state.

Mississippi’s capital city is 80% Black and home to a higher
percentage of Black residents than any major American city.
Mississippi’s Legislature is thoroughly controlled by white
Republicans, who have redrawn districts over the past 30 years to
ensure they can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Every
legislative Republican is white, and most Democrats are Black.

After thorough and passionate dissent from Black members of the House,
the bill passed 76-38 Tuesday primarily along party lines. Two Black
member of the House — Rep. Cedric Burnett, a Democrat from Tunica,
and Angela Cockerham, an independent from Magnolia — voted for the
measure. All but one lawmaker representing the city of Jackson —
Rep. Shanda Yates, a white independent — opposed the bill.

“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say
solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,”
Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton, said while pleading with his
colleagues to oppose the measure.

For most of the debate, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba — who has
been publicly chided by the white Republicans who lead the Legislature
— looked down on the House chamber from the gallery. Lumumba
accused the Legislature earlier this year
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of practicing “plantation politics” in terms of its treatment of
Jackson, and of the bill that passed Tuesday, he said: “It reminds
me of apartheid.”

Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten, who served in the House
before being elected judge and would be one of the existing judges to
lose jurisdiction under this House proposal, also watched the debate.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the Capitol
Police, watched a portion of the debate from the House gallery,
chuckling at times when Democrats made impassioned points about the
bill. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the only statewide elected official
who owns a house in Jackson, walked onto the House floor shortly
before the final vote.

Rep. Blackmon, a civil rights leader who has a decades-long history of
championing voting issues, equated the current legislation to the Jim
Crow-era 1890 Constitution that was written to strip voting rights
from Black Mississippians.

“This is just like the 1890 Constitution all over again,” Blackmon
said from the floor. “We are doing exactly what they said they were
doing back then: ‘Helping those people because they can’t govern
themselves.'”

The bill was authored by Rep. Trey Lamar, a Republican whose hometown
of Senatobia is 172 miles north of Jackson. It was sent to Lamar’s
committee by Speaker Philip Gunn instead of a House Judiciary
Committee, where similar legislation normally would be heard.

“This bill is designed to make our capital city of Jackson,
Mississippi, a safer place,” Lamar said, citing numerous news
sources who have covered Jackson’s high crime rates. Dwelling on a
long backlog of Hinds County court cases, Lamar said the bill was
designed to “help not hinder the (Hinds County) court system.”

“My constituents want to feel safe when they come here,” Lamar
said, adding the capital city belonged to all the citizens of the
state. “Where I am coming from with this bill is to help the
citizens of Jackson and Hinds County.”

Many House members who represent Jackson on Tuesday said they were
never consulted by House leadership about the bill. Several times
during the debate, they pointed out that Republican leaders have never
proposed increasing the number of elected judges to address a backlog
of cases or increasing state funding to assist an overloaded Jackson
Police Department.

In earlier sessions, the Legislature created the Capitol Complex
Improvement District, which covers much of the downtown, including the
state government office complex and other areas of Jackson. The bill
would extend the existing district south to Highway 80, north to
County Line Road, west to State Street and east to the Pearl River.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 people live within the area.

Opponents of the legislation, dozens of whom have protested at the
Capitol several days this year, accused the authors of carving out
mostly white, affluent areas of the city to be put in the new
district.

The bill would double the funding for the district to $20 million in
order to increase the size of the existing Capitol Police force
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which has received broad criticism from Jacksonians for shooting
several people in recent months with little accountability.

The new court system laid out in House Bill 1020 is estimated to cost
$1.6 million annually.

Democratic members of the House said if they wanted to help with the
crime problem, the Legislature could increase the number of elected
judges in Hinds County. Blackmon said Hinds County was provided four
judges in 1992 when a major redistricting occurred, and that number
has not increased since then even as the caseload for the four judges
has exploded.

In addition, Blackmon said the number of assistant prosecuting
attorneys could be increased within Hinds County. In Lamar’s bill,
the prosecuting of cases within the district would be conducted by
attorneys in the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is white.

Blackmon said the bill was “about a land grab,” not about fighting
crime. He said other municipalities in the state had higher crime
rates than Jackson. Blackmon asked why the bill would give the
appointed judges the authority to hear civil cases that had nothing to
do with crime.

“When Jackson becomes the No. 1 place for murder, we have a
problem,” Lamar responded, highlighting the city’s long backlog of
court cases. Several Democrats, during the debate, pointed out that
the state of Mississippi’s crime lab has a lengthy backlog, as well,
adding to the difficult in closing cases in Hinds County.

Lamar said the Mississippi Constitution gives the Legislature the
authority to create “inferior courts,” as the Capitol Complex
system would be. The decisions of the appointed judges can be appealed
to Hinds County Circuit Court.

Democrats offered seven amendments, including one to make the judges
elected. All were defeated primarily along partisan and racial lines.

“We are not incompetent,” said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. “Our
judges are not incompetent.”

An amendment offered by Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, to require
the Capitol Police to wear body cameras was approved. Lamar voiced
support for the amendment.

Much of the debate centered around the issue of creating a court where
the Black majority in Hinds County would not be allowed to vote on
judges.

One amendment that was defeated would require the appointed judges to
come from Hinds County. Lamar said by allowing the judges to come from
areas other than Hinds County would ensure “the best and
brightest” could serve. Black legislators said the comment implied
that he judges and other court staff could not be found within the
Black majority population of Hinds County.

When asked why he could not add more elected judges to Hinds County
rather than appointing judges to the new district, Lamar said, “This
is the bill that is before the body.”

Mississippi Today

We believe that an informed Mississippi is a better Mississippi. We
center readers in everything we do, informing–and
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* Jackson Mississippi
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