Coahoma County Criminal Trial Term Update: DA’s Office has THREE Mistrials in THREE Weeks Plus a Hung jury

July 24 - State v. Hill, Porter, Stacker, and Marion (2020 incident) - charge of shooting into a dwelling x2 and shooting into a motor vehicle x2. Law enforcement prior to trial had told the DA they had lost material evidence - DA did not inform defense counsel or the Court and started trial anyway. The Court, upon discovery of this issue mid-trial, properly declared mistrial. Post mistrial - Court further suppressed all evidence as violation of search and seizure. DA office had no admissible evidence left. Case dismissed

July 31 - (2019 incident) State v. Green & Walls - 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Assault - hung jury

Aug 7 - (2021 incident) State v. Harmon - Manslaughter - Mistrial declared due to DA failure to disclose autopsy pictures to defense counsel.

Aug 10- (2019 incident) State v. Pollard - multiple counts of drug possession - Mistrial declared bc Defendant brought into courtroom before the jury while still in chains.

Every one of these cases is 2-4 years old. Due to the mistrials and the hung jury - all are still on the Court docket. Each jury costs Coahoma County (conservatively) $3,500. This price does not include the cost of pretrial incarceration which can last years as well as the cost of manpower to investigate these cases and expert witness fees and expenses.

In short, in the past three weeks, taxpayers of Coahoma County spent well over $15,000 with no return.