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Former DA Peters ‘Will Be Barred from Practicing Law'
Former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters has turned in his law license to the Mississippi Bar Association. The Bar received Peters' resignation last week, but had to wait until …
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DA Re-Indicts; Defense Alleges Bad Cop Work
This is an updated version of a story originally published July 4, 2008.
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City & County
10 Local Stories of the Week
There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.
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Civil Rights
Prosecutor May Try Curtis Flowers a Seventh Time
A Mississippi prosecutor has tried and failed six times to send Curtis Flowers to the death chamber, with the latest trial conviction and death sentence overturned on Friday because of …
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Crime
Informant Recorded DA Smith, Reported to FBI for Months
Former Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Ivon Johnson secretly taped District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith on several occasions over the last year, FBI Special Agent Robert Culpepper testified this morning …
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Lost in a Broken System: Why Detainees Spend Years in Hinds Jails Without Trial
Fifty-eight people in Hinds County Detention Centers by July 2, 2021, had spent more than two years there, documents the Jackson Free Press obtained show.
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Jackson Man Arrested for Conspiracy, Bribery of Hinds County Assistant DA
By Tim Summers Jr.VERBATIM:Attorney General Jim Hood announced today that a Jackson man was arrested Friday for bribery of a public official and conspiracy following a joint investigation by the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI.
Robert Henderson, 44, is accused of offering a former Hinds County assistant district attorney $500 in exchange for dismissal of charges against three criminal defendants. Henderson is charged with one count of bribery of a public official and one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official. Henderson was booked into the Hinds County Jail. Hinds County Justice Court Judge Frank Sutton set Henderson's bond at $5,000 for bribery of a public official and $5,000 for conspiracy for a total of $10,000.
Henderson is alleged to have offered the bribe to then-Hinds County Assistant DA Ivon Johnson on or about June 15 of this year. Henderson is accused of seeking Johnson’s assistance in having cases dismissed involving three criminal defendants.
As with all cases, a charge is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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Jeff Weill Announces Run for Judge Seat
Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill, who turns 53 tomorrow, is announcing this morning that he will run for the seat of Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger this year. Yerger, …
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Hood: Victim's Mother Asked Him to Prosecute Bell
Attorney General Jim Hood told the Jackson Free Press Tuesday that he will personally prosecute George Bell III for the murder of Heather Spencer at the request of Spencer's mother, …
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Transcript: JFP Interview with DA Candidate Michele Purvis
Interview by Adam Lynch
Mt. Olive, and I'm not a Jackson resident. I live in Clinton. I've lived in Clinton about three years.
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Finding the Facts
Researchers attempt to trace historical effects of oil industry in neighboring communities
Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Interior's much-maligned Mineral Management Service (MMS) has sponsored projects to examine the history of the Gulf. Research teams from the University of Houston …
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Texas DA's Killing Puts Other Prosecutors on Alert
After one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down in January, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland carried a gun everywhere, even when walking the dog.
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JUST IN: Wilson Pleads Guilty to Murder in Teen Death
More details as they develop ...
Toice Wilson today pled guilty to murder in Hinds County Circuit Court after the prosecution refused his request yesterday to plead guilty to manslaughter in the beating death of Tawana …
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City & County
10 Local Stories of the Week
There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.
Story
Funkee Fanger Productions
"Unsolved Mysteries of Butt Nekkid Divorcees" combines reality TV with the paranormal. The premiere episode (titled "Know a Playa When You See His Azz") features a segment about a mysterious …
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Spike Lee
It wasn't enough for filmmaker Spike Lee to make one documentary about the anger and outrage of Gulf Coast residents in the months after Hurricane Katrina. His new documentary, "If …
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Decrypting Da Vinci
When New England novelist Dan Brown sat down in 2003 to write "The Da Vinci Code," he probably never guessed that in less than three years his controversial thriller would …
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The DA Game: A Trial Of Three
Photos by Adam Lynch & Cheree Franco
While some Hinds County electoral positions can go for years without challenge, the district attorney's office is routinely on the chopping block, and it's no different this year. Incumbent Faye …

