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Sentencing began today for six white former Mississippi police officers who admitted torturing two Black men during a raid in January 2023, with the first officer sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The defendants – five former Rankin County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) officers and one from the Richland Police Department – all pleaded guilty to the charges against them last August.
On 24 January 2023, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, Jeffrey Middleton and Joshua Hartfield broke down the door of a home in Braxton, MI, where the two victims were living, without a warrant.
The group then handcuffed Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker without probable cause to believe they had committed any crime.
They then called the two men racial slurs and told them to stay out of Rankin County.
Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker were also punched, kicked, tasered 17 times, assaulted with a dildo and were forced to “ingest liquids”. Mr Dedmon also fired his gun twice to intimidate the men.
When that was over, Mr Elward removed a bullet from his gun and then placed the device in Mr Jenkins’ mouth before pulling the trigger. Mr Elward then racked the gun, intending to dry-fire for a second time but instead the firearm discharged, lacerated Mr Jenkins’ tongue and broke his jaw.
While the victim laid on the floor, bleeding, the defendants didn’t provide medical aid.
Instead, the Department of Justice said, they gathered outside the home to come up with a false cover story.
Part of that cover included planting a gun on Mr Jenkins, destroying surveillance footage and submitting fake drug evidence to the crime lab.
The victims then filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in June 2023, with the indictments unsealed in August.
It was then that the former officers pleaded guilty to a combination of 13 felonies.
“No human being should ever be subjected to the kind of torturous, traumatising and horrific acts of violence that were carried out by these law enforcement officers,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in August.
“The physical and emotional impact of their crimes resulted from a calculated, deliberate, and egregious course of conduct that required a significant response from authorities.”
The first to be sentenced was Mr Elward on Tuesday morning, with Mr Middleton following on Tuesday afternoon. Mr Dedmon and Mr Opdyke will be sentenced on Wednesday, with Mr Hartfield and Mr McAlpin on Thursday.
Mr Elward faced the most serious charge from the January 2023 attack – discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
While he faced up to 30 years in prison, the judge opted for a 20 year sentence at a hearing on Turesday morning.
The other defendants face up to 20 years in prison, also.
In a statement following the guilty pleas last summer, US Attorney General Merrick B Garland said the Department of Justice would hold officers who abuse public trust to account.
“The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers,” Mr Garland said.
