Three activists urged Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to initiate proceedings to remove Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey from office unless he resigns willingly during a rally outside the governor’s mansion on Tuesday. The activists, John Osborne, John C. Barnett and Fred Chambliss, said they did not believe the sheriff’s claim that he did not know about the so-called “goon squad” of deputies in his department who tortured two Black men last year.
State law empowers the governor to remove a sheriff from office who fails in his duties. “If, after a hearing by the Governor, held in accordance with due process of law, it shall be ascertained that the sheriff has wilfully failed, neglected or refused to preserve the courthouse, or the jail, or any prisoners lawfully in his custody from injuries by mob violence, then the Governor shall have the power and it shall be his duty to remove such sheriff from office,” Section 19-25-69 of the Mississippi Code says.
The Rankin County chapter of the NAACP has been collecting signatures from residents for a petition demanding Bailey’s resignation.
“We’d be fools to think (Bailey) didn’t know anything about the ‘goon squad,” said Barnett, who is a civil-rights activist from North Carolina.
Rankin County Circuit Court Judge Steve Ratcliff sentenced the six men on state charges at a courthouse this morning in Brandon, Miss., for their roles in the physical, sexual and racist torture of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023.
The judge sentenced f Rankin County Deputies Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke to serve 20 years; Christian Dedmon to 25 years; Hunter Elward to 45 years; and former Richland Police Officer Joshua Hartfield to 15 years in federal prison, NBC News reported. They must all pay fines within two years of release and permanently surrender their law enforcement certificates, the report continued.
Eddie Terrell Parker (left) and Michael Jenkins (right) are joined by attorney Trent Walker (center) at a press conference in Jackson, Miss., on March 18, 2024. Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad
The ex-officers will serve their state sentences concurrently to their federal
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