JACKSON, Miss.—Jackson residents who commit local misdemeanor offenses could soon appear before an unelected, Mississippi Supreme Court-appointed municipal judge from any part of the state after the Mississippi Legislature sent the final version of House Bill 1020 to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk. If signed, the bill would take some authority away from elected judges and prosecutors and give state police expanded jurisdiction over the 83% Black city’s capitol district.
Earlier this year, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba compared the legislation to segregation-era laws and said, “It reminds me of apartheid.”
The newly created municipal court would hear and determine all preliminary matters and decide misdemeanor cases that occur in part or in whole in the portion of the capital city designated as the Capitol Complex Improvement District starting January 2024 until July 2027. The House passed the bill in a 72-41 vote, and the Senate passed it in a 31-15 vote.
If Reeves signs H.B. 1020, the attorney general would also designate two prosecuting attorneys for the inferior court to prosecute crimes inside the CCID and would file criminal indictments for issues arising in part or in whole there “in the same manner and with the same authority of law provided for district attorneys and county prosecuting attorneys.” Both the district attorney and county attorney positions are elected in Mississippi.
These provisions would deprive the Hinds County voters who live inside in the carved-out CCID district of having the right to elect prosecutors and for their elected officials to select judges on their behalf, House Rep. Edward Blackmon Jr., D-Canton, said on the House floor Friday before the vote. In Jackson, the mayor nominates and the city council confirms municipal judges.
Blackmon warned that the bill will end up in court and said it violates the people’s right “to make decisions locally.”
Mississippi Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, shared a map of the proposed change in the Capitol Complex Improvement District on March 31, 2023, with the pink color showing the current district size, and the blue color showing the planned expansion under H.B. 1020. The new district will start in July 2024