Jackson, miss.-
Two black men who were tortured by six Mississippi law enforcement officers asked a federal judge Monday to impose the harshest possible sentences against the disgraced former law enforcement officers.
The former law enforcement officers admitted in August to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of violent, racially motivated torture.
Prompted by a neighbor’s complaint in January 2023 that Jenkins and Parker were staying at a home with a white woman, the group of six broke in without a warrant and assaulted Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, a sex toy, and other objects. .
After a mock execution went wrong when Jenkins was shot in the mouth, they devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department later supported the deputies’ false charges, which were filed against Jenkins and Parker for months.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee will sentence two defendants each day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, after twice delaying proceedings.
An attorney for Jenkins and Parker on Monday called for “the harshest sentences.”
“Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker continue to suffer emotionally and physically since this horrific and bloody attack by Rankin County deputies,” Malik Shabazz said in a statement. “A message should be sent to police in Mississippi and across the United States,” he said, that such criminal conduct “will face the harshest consequences.”
Jenkins and Parker were scheduled to address reporters Monday afternoon.
The charged officers include former Rankin officers Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and Joshua Hartfield, a former Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstruction of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Most of his attorneys did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Monday. Jason Kirschberg, representing Opdyke, said: “Daniel has accepted responsibility for his actions and for his inactions. …he has admitted that he was wrong and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.”
The former officers accepted sentences recommended by the prosecutor ranging from five to 30 years, although the judge is not bound by that agreement. Time served for separate sentences at the state level will run concurrently with the potentially longer federal sentences.
An Associated Press investigation published in March 2023 linked some of the officers to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.
Shabazz said the false charges against the victims were not dropped until June. That’s when federal and state investigators began approaching the agents and one of them began to speak. They were fired soon after, and prosecutors announced federal charges in August.
Prosecutors say some of the officers nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover up attacks.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey called the crimes committed by his deputies the worst case of police brutality he has ever seen. For months, Bailey said little about the episode. After the officers pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had gone rogue and vowed to change the department.
Jenkins and Parker asked to resign and filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.
Corrected spelling of Brett and McAlpin.
Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.