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Election results! After more than a week, we’ve got the final tally in a closely watched Mississippi Supreme Court runoff race. We’re also covering new developments involving a controversial, state-run court in Jackson, a flurry of death row case filings and a new coroner in Hinds County.
– Caleb Bedillion and Daja E. Henry, staff writers, The Marshall Project - Jackson
Challenger defeats incumbent Supreme Court justice
Conservative state lawmaker Jenifer Branning has defeated moderate incumbent Jim Kitchens for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court, according to final election results released by the Secretary of State’s office.
Branning narrowly won the Nov. 26 runoff election with 64,087 votes, or 50.6%, in the Mississippi Supreme Court’s central district, which includes Jackson. Kitchens received 62,685 votes, or just about 49.4%. Branning and Kitchens had advanced to a runoff after none of the five candidates running for the seat received a majority of votes during the Nov. 5 general election.
The state’s nine high-court justices are elected from three districts and serve staggered eight-year terms.
Kitchens is the second incumbent justice to be ousted this year. David Sullivan defeated Justice Dawn Beam on Nov. 5 for a south Mississippi Supreme Court seat.
During his campaign, Sullivan described himself as conservative but voiced support for some criminal justice reforms. Even if Sullivan turns out to be somewhat more moderate than Beam, Kitchens’ defeat by Branning will likely shift Mississippi’s already conservative Supreme Court even further rightward.
Kitchens, currently in his second eight-year term, has been one of the few moderates on the court and dissented from the conservative majority in a number of high-profile cases. The SPLC Action Fund backed his reelection bid, and trial lawyers provided the bulk of his campaign contributions.
Branning is currently in her third term as a Republican state senator and her bid for the Mississippi Supreme Court was endorsed by the state GOP. In the Legislature, she has voted for harsher penalties for some crimes, including shoplifting, opposed the expansion of parole and was among the few lawmakers who voted against legalizing medical marijuana.
Lawsuit over state-run court in Jackson dismissed
The last legal threat hanging over a controversial state-run court in the city of Jackson has ended.
The NAACP wanted to block the creation of the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court. The civil rights organization argued that the court would undercut the power of Black voters over key local officials, including judges and prosecutors, by shifting that power to state officials.
In 2023, state lawmakers created the court and gave a state police force increased jurisdiction inside Jackson. The law requires the chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court to name a judge for the court and the attorney general to designate prosecutors.
A state lawsuit ultimately prompted a ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court that allowed the court to stay in place, but sharply limited the power of unelected judges over felony cases in Hinds County.
In federal court, the NAACP sued and asked a judge to block the appointment of any judges to the court. Early rulings, however, indicated that U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate did not believe that the plaintiffs had the legal status to bring a lawsuit over the issue, and this week the NAACP and other plaintiffs asked that the suit be dismissed. Wingate quickly agreed to do so, and strongly chastised the plaintiffs for repeatedly attempting to name Chief Justice Micahel Randolph as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Amid the challenges, the court has yet to be established due to the lack of a court building, said Administrative Office of Courts spokesperson Beverly Kraft.
Death penalty cases advance toward end of appeals
After two years without any executions in the state, Attorney General Lynn Fitch is urging the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for several men on death row.
On Nov. 22, Fitch filed a motion asking the high court to set an execution date within 30 days for Charles Ray Crawford, who was convicted of capital murder in 1993. According to the motion, Fitch said Crawford “had exhausted all state and federal remedies.”
In October, Fitch asked the court to grant her previous motion to set an execution date for Willie Jerome Manning a day after justices voted 5-4 not to hear new evidence in his case. Manning has been on death row for 30 years and was set to be killed once before in 2013. The court stopped that execution with an 8-1 vote just hours before it was scheduled to happen. Manning’s attorneys maintain that he was wrongfully convicted, and evidence in his case has been called into question.
These calls are the latest in a series of the attorney general’s efforts to execute people on death row. Since last year, she has filed multiple motions to set execution dates in the death penalty cases of Crawford, Manning, Robert Simon Jr. and Richard Jordan. Her motions accuse the men of abusing the system and unduly delaying their executions.
Hinds County appoints interim coroner
In a public meeting on Dec. 2, Hinds County Board of Supervisors appointed Jeramiah Howard to serve as interim coroner beginning on Jan. 1. Howard is currently a deputy medical examiner in the coroner’s office and chief of the Pocahontas Volunteer Fire Department.
Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart announced her retirement in September. The announcement followed public outrage after NBC News uncovered several stories of people being buried in the county’s pauper’s field without any notification to their families. Dexter Wade was hit and killed by a police car in March, but his body lay unclaimed in the morgue for months and was later buried, while police and the coroner’s office identified him, but failed to contact his mother. At least seven other people were also buried without their families’ knowledge.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would step in to help both the coroner’s office and Jackson Police Department improve their death notification policies.
Grisham-Stewart was elected in 1999. A special election for the permanent role will be held in November 2025.
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