First of Six Law Enforcement Officers Sentenced for Torturing Black Men

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Hunter Elward, a former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy who faced the most serious of federal charges against him and five other officers in the torture of two Black men last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a highly emotional hearing Tuesday.

Elward pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the January 2023 incident. The former officer was also ordered to pay $79,500 in restitution to the victims.

Details from the January 24, 2023, incident in Braxton, just southeast of Jackson, eventually came to light after the victims – Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker – filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in June. They alleged the officers illegally entered their home and handcuffed, kicked, waterboarded and tased them and attempted to sexually assault them over nearly two hours before one of the deputies put a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and shot him.

Many of the claims were later borne out by federal prosecutors in August as the six former Mississippi officers pleaded guilty to a combined 13 felonies in connection with the torture and abuse of the two men. Elward also pleaded guilty in August to state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, home invasion and aggravated assault. He awaits sentencing on the state charges.

If it was up to me he and the other five would be doing time in general pop.  Their presence there would go over with a lead balloon.  Of course they'll probably be kept in special housing to protect them from other inmates.

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The last of the six defendants was sentenced today

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Joshua Hartfield, the last of six White former Mississippi law enforcement officers sentenced in the torture of two Black men in January 2023, received a 10-year prison term in federal court Thursday afternoon.

The hearing capped an emotional three days during which vivid accounts of the horrifying brutality of a self-styled “Goon Squad” of deputies gripped a packed courtroom, where the highest-ranking officer on the scene – Brett McAlpin – was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison earlier Thursday.

“This a momentous day,” Melvin Jenkins, the father of one of the victims, said after the final sentencing.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a release: “The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated, and they will now spend between 10 and 40 years in prison for their heinous attack on citizens they had sworn to protect.”