American Civil Liberties Union of MS and Center for Constitutional Rights v. Rankin County District Attorney’s Office

The ACLU of Mississippi and the Center for Constitutional Rights, with support from the American Civil Liberties Union’s State Supreme Court Initiative, today filed a public records lawsuit seeking information about the Rankin County District Attorney’s Office’s handling of criminal legal cases in which sheriff deputies had engaged in a pattern of misconduct and abuse for nearly two decades.

In 2023, news reports exposed a years-long pattern of torture, extreme violence, and other abusive practices by deputies in the Sheriff’s Office to coerce confessions and manufacture evidence for criminal prosecutions. These deputies, who called themselves the “Goon Squad,” were responsible for profound suffering by the local community, including numerous wrongful convictions.

Following the revelations, the civil rights organizations filed a request under the Mississippi Public Records Act (“MPRA”) to the Rankin County District Attorney’s Office, which was responsible for criminally prosecuting many of the cases tainted by the Goon Squad. The request sought records relating to any actions the office took in response to the exposed police misconduct. But the District Attorney’s office initially refused to disclose any documents related to its response to the misconduct revelations and later disclosed only one email to a journalist. This is a direct violation of the MPRA.

The lawsuit alleges that the Rankin County District Attorney’s Office is withholding public records that the state public records law requires it to disclose. It also highlights that the District Attorney’s claim, that there are no records responsive to several of the specific requests, contradicted by the office’s public statements that it conducted an “extensive review” of cases potentially tainted by the Goon Squad.

The public records lawsuit asks the court to compel the release of several categories of records, including a list of cases with Goon Squad involvement, policies related to disclosing exculpatory evidence, any documented actions taken in response to the revelations, and communications between the District Attorney’s Office and members of the Goon Squad, among others.