Mina Corpuz 🐟

Covering the criminal justice system, legal issues & more @MSTodayNews | Fellow @NatPress + Law & Justice Journalism Project. Tips: [email protected]

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

“It’s almost unbearable when you’re awake,” Olander Dedeaux, who has been in solitary since December, told his advocate.

He shared similar issues & experiences of men who were in solitary 20 years earlier.

Story with @dajaehenry & @burning_gr4nt:

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

MDOC for decades has regularly held incarcerated people in solitary confinement for weeks, months and, in some cases, years at a time. https://t.co/ajSPgIqwnZ

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

Tate County Sheriff Luke Shepherd declined to comment about the shooting and he declined to say whether anyone has been charged.

He said the department is doing an independent investigation to determine whether any deputies will be placed on leave.

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into a police shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy in north Mississippi. https://t.co/5j8MhCBIT0

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

States have various execution methods, including lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas and firing squad. Lethal injection is the primary method in most states, but it has faced issues including drug shortages and botched executions.
https://t.co/j2JhNzb4Xv

via @AP

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Hinds County’s underpaid public defenders will temporarily earn more through the end of the year after the Board of Supervisors scrounged up money left over from construction on the new jail. https://t.co/iX6oRKbyl1

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

After becoming the fourth police chief in six months and following a federal investigation that led to policing reforms, Lexington’s new leader, David Simmons, said establishing trust in the community is a major goal of his. https://t.co/YwuJ6PZSAV

[Daja E. Henry 🌸 @dajaehenry]

After 20 years in solitary confinement and an overturned death sentence, Quintez Hodges died by hanging.

“This is not a fucking suicide. They were killing this man," Joesph Patri Brown told me from death row.

my latest w/ @mlcorpuz and @burning_gr4nt:
https://t.co/Ht5MVsKrbU

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

The decision comes a week and a half after the court sided with Terry Pitchford, another Mississippi death row inmate who argued there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury in his case.

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of Mississippi death row inmate Tony Terrell Clark, who argued there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him. https://t.co/zzwFxQCRWS

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

Nearly 75% of the incarcerated people who died by suicide in Mississippi prisons were in restrictive housing, where well-being checks are supposed to happen more frequently than in the general population.

The news team spent a year investigating. Story with @dajaehenry:

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

An investigation found at least 47 suicides occurred in solitary confinement in Mississippi, where cries for mental health care were met with isolation and punishment. https://t.co/U0SyrB9rOG

[Daja E. Henry 🌸 @dajaehenry]

A young mother begged for help. Instead, she was sent to solitary confinement, where she died by suicide.

Despite a legion of evidence of its harms, solitary confinement was the common factor in nearly 75% of suicides in Mississippi prisons since 2015.

https://t.co/GmzNhsMhYl

[Jerry Mitchell @JMitchellNews]

https://t.co/AR0mz6RZUc

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

Another story about violence pretrial detainees have experienced at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond and the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, where Hinds houses some detainees because its jail is crowded.

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Three men charged with the same shooting at a south Jackson apartment complex were attacked within 24 hours of each other at two different jails – an incident a corrections expert called “bizarre” and “alarming.” https://t.co/J78GIr4R0M

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

Mississippi allows nitrogen gas executions, along with execution by lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad.

But since the state restarted executions in 2021, Mississippi has only used lethal injection.

[The Associated Press @AP]

Federal judge upholds constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions https://t.co/X5lbLzg9qM

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Jurors sent Tameshia Shelton to prison for life for murder, never seeing the victim’s apparent suicide note. If the courts free her, her case would mark the seventh exoneration in the same Mississippi judicial district in three decades. https://t.co/wlu357r0Gi

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

Last month, I spoke with a mother whose son survived being stabbed inside a private prison. A spokesperson said the incident didn't happen.

Weeks passed. The mother called again and said her son was stabbed again, along with his cellmate. The story:

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Two Hinds County detainees at the private Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility said they were attacked with knives. It was the second time for one of them. https://t.co/J9a2NR739x

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled for a Black death row inmate from Mississippi who claims there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him.
https://t.co/F5L3Ut2cSQ

via @AP

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Clarke County Sheriff Anthony Chancelor reinstated two of his deputies days after he said they were part of “an attempted internal coup” when they joined others in leaving the force. https://t.co/wBmLvGf6z9

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Six Clarke County sheriff's deputies have left the department, and Sheriff Anthony Chancelor is being investigated for alleged domestic violence. https://t.co/w09CbiOyIf

[Warwick Sabin @warwicksabin]

Very proud of our journalists at both @veritenewsnola & @MSTODAYnews who separately were nominated for 2026 Salute to Excellence Awards by @NABJ! #NABJ26

Congrats to @RichardAWebster & @bmisick at Verite and @mlcorpuz and @JMitchellNews at Miss. Today.

https://t.co/fqs8GQzOlI

[Mississippi Today @MSTODAYnews]

Senior U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, who most recently presided over the guilty pleas of the “Goon Squad” of Rankin County law enforcement officers, will stop hearing cases next month in Jackson. https://t.co/8W8P9DfyMH

[Mina Corpuz 🐟 @mlcorpuz]

The families of 4 men who died or allegedly were beaten in encounters with MS law enforcement urged officials to stop denying them access to video capturing the incident or records about it.

Story by @madelineynguyen:
https://t.co/4D8OJZoSfd