Jackson Mayor, Other Black Mississippi Officials to Stay in Office Amid Corruption Charges

From [HERE] Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens II walked briskly toward a crowd of TV cameras and reporters on the steps of the federal courthouse in Jackson last week to denounce what he called a “horrible example of a flawed FBI investigation” and an “assassination attempt on my character.”

Owens, the top elected law enforcement official for Mississippi’s largest county that encompasses its capital city, pleaded not guilty to multiple federal felony charges stemming from an alleged FBI bribery sting. He vowed to remain in office.

And indicted Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who faces similar charges in the same case, pledged to remain mayor and continue his 2025 reelection campaign.

“We plan on fighting these charges. But right now, I’m going to get back to protecting Hinds County and being your district attorney that you elected us to be,” Owens told reporters last week after his arraignment in federal court in Jackson.

“I am not guilty, so I will not proceed as a guilty man,” Lumumba said.

For at least the last 50 years, it has not been unusual for top-ranking elected officials across the U.S. to keep their offices as they fight the charges, even after major felony indictments for corruption, according to legal experts interviewed by The Marshall Project - Jackson. Indictments are allegations, and the accused are innocent until proven guilty. [MORE]