With its refusal to impose oversight or consistent standards in local defense, Mississippi risks falling further behind the rest of the U.S., critics say.
Mississippi public defenders could curb incarcerations - Mississippi Today
What Mississippi needs is a state-level public defender mandate establishing clear, enforceable standards that apply in every jurisdiction: standards for compensation and expenses, for workload, for when counsel first meets a client, for continuity of representation through all stages of a case.
Why Mississippi Courts Must Produce Public Defense Plans
The state Supreme Court wants to know how local courts provide lawyers, if any, to poor people after their arrest.
Mississippi Makes Move Toward State-Funded Public Defenders
Indigent felony defendants in many counties have lacked court-appointed lawyers before indictment, even while they sat in jails for weeks or months.
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi…
"Ranging from Reconstruction to the Black Power period,…
Mississippi “Data Center Giveaway Law” Leaves Residents in the Dark and Could Already Be Costing Utility Customers ~$11/mo.
A state law is failing to protect households from potentially rising power bills. How lawmakers and utilities can fix this.
Mississippi public defender system varies widely by county, court plans show
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that the Sixth Amendment requires states to provide lawyers to criminal defendants who cannot afford one. Mississippi delegates that responsibility to counties, a system civil rights attorneys say is inconsistent and ineffective.
Adequate indigent defense should be a top priority
This past weekend, I published a story for The Commonwealth assessing Mississippi’s 23 circuit court districts’ indigent defense plans — that is how each of those courts provides lawyers to indigent, or poor, criminal defendants charged with a felony who can’t afford their own counsel.
Mississippi - Sixth Amendment Center
The state of Mississippi delegates to its local governments all responsibility for funding and administering indigent defense service in adult criminal trials, except for some case types where the state provides services. The state has no commission providing oversight of indigent defense services.
Hinds public defender: Office needs additional funding to avert constitutional crisis - Mississippi Today
Hinds County public defender says supervisors should approve a funding increase to honor the constitutional promise that justice does not depend on wealth.
Advocates urge for higher pay for public defenders - Mississippi Today
On Tuesday, members of Defend Mississippi – a statewide group receiving support from national criminal justice advocates – gathered to make the case for why the Hinds County Board of Supervisors should appropriate $350,000 to the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office.
This Mississippi Court Appoints Lawyers for Just 1 in 5 Defendants Before Indictment
Mississippi is known as one of the worst states for public defense. In one lower court, most defendants went without any lawyer before indictment.
Defense, like prosecution, should be funded by state
When America’s Founding Fathers were debating the Constitution, they realized that it didn’t do enough to protect individual rights.
Massachusetts prosecutors run on dial-up-era software
I asked all 11 Massachusetts DAs for their case data. Six million charges came back. The system holding them is "obsolete" — and its replacement is being bought right now, in silence.
Hinds County gives public defenders temporary pay boost - Mississippi Today
A roughly $261,000 boost to the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office will narrow the pay gap between the county’s prosecutors and public defenders for the next six months.
A battle over data centers heats up along the Mississippi-Tennessee state line • Tennessee Lookout
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Over the last three years, Devan Jenkins has watched the trees around her family home give way to industrial development. Directly in front of her property along the Mississippi-Tennessee border sits a tangle of massive power lines, an extension of the electrical grid operated by Memphis Light, Gas and Water. At the […]
So I wrote a much longer thing explaining why Minnesota's anti-nudify tech law, while it might be well meaning, is TERRIBLY DRAFTED in a manner that almost guarantees it will be thrown out, giving Elon Musk a win. But also, I don't understand WHY MN legislators wrote such a bad law...
Techdirt
The Worst Person You Know Just Filed A Good First Amendment Lawsuit Against A Very Badly Drafted Nudify App Ban There's been a bunch of news this... techdirt.com/2026/07/30/the-worst-person-y…
