Mississippi's "Goon Squad" sentenced

Malik Shabazz, the attorney for victim Michael Jenkins, read out the victim's impact statement ahead of the sentencing of the six White former Mississippi officers' sentencing.

"Your honor, please take these crimes by the goon squad seriously," Jenkins said in the statement. "Your honor, it is true that me and Eddie, in this event were called racist names."

January 24, 2023, was the worst day of his life, he said.

He detailed his torture, and described what it has meant.

"They tried to take my manhood from me. They did some unimaginable things to me and the effects of which will last in my life forever. All the things I used to do in my life have been affected. I am a musician and a signer, and now because of the gunshot wound that shattered my jaw, I can no longer do what I love, and that's sing," he added.

Jenkins said he wakes up at night covered in sweat due to nightmares about what happened, and loud noises, police lights and sirens give him anxiety.

"I'm broken inside, and I don't think I will ever be the person I was," he continued.

Six White former Mississippi law enforcement officers are set to be sentenced Wednesday on state charges tied to the abuse of Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. They have now entered the courtroom.

Five former Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies will be sentenced today:

Former Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield will also be sentenced.

They pleaded guilty in August to state and federal charges.

The state sentencing hearing of six White former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the torture and abuse of two Black men has started.

This court hearing is well-attended, with the benches behind the victims nearly full. Some family members of the defendants are on the left side of the courtroom.

Remember: They have already been handed long sentences in federal court.

CNN's Devon Sayers contributed reporting to this post. 

Six White former Mississippi law enforcement officers are about to be sentenced on state charges after pleading guilty in connection to the torture and abuse of two Black men – Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins — on January 24, 2023, in Braxton, Mississippi, just southeast of Jackson.

The six officers went to the residence after a White neighbor reported that several Black men were staying at a White woman’s home and reported seeing suspicious behavior — but in the end the officers found no crime, prosecutors said.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office in August brought state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice against each of the officers. Additionally, Dedmon was charged with home invasion and Elward was charged with home invasion and aggravated assault. McAlpin, Middleton, Opdyke and Hartfield each faced an additional charge of first-degree obstruction of justice, the office said.

The former officers pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice, according to court records. Elward faced the most serious of federal charges stemming from the January incident – discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

The deputies, “in their repeated use of racial slurs in the course of their violent acts, were oppressive and hateful against their African-American victims,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants were motivated on the basis of race and the color of the skin of the persons they assaulted.”

In March, the Rankin County NAACP branch pushed the court in writing to enact harsh punishments in the “Goon Squad” case. Severe consequences, the civil rights group’s president suggested, could steer progress toward justice.

“We can’t erase Mississippi’s past,” Angela English, branch president, told CNN before the first federal sentence was handed down. “But we can move forward today and set a precedent that has never been set before.”

And the fallout may not be over.

The local NAACP chapter called for a pattern-or-practice investigation of policing in Rankin County. The US Justice Department continues to ask the public to share information about allegations of abuse by its sheriff’s office via a toll-free number. And some here are working to oust the sheriff himself, who apologized and said he was “ashamed” after his deputies pleaded guilty in the torture ordeal.

At least three of the defendants – then-deputies Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke – were part of a group of deputies that called themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it, federal prosecutors said in court documents.

A federal court sentenced the highest-ranking officer of this squad – Brett McAlpin – to more than 27 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors described McAlpin, a former deputy with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, as “the one calling the shots” and as a “mafia don” among the rogue cops who tortured citizens – acts associated with another time in the state of Mississippi.

The six Mississippi officers who will be sentenced on state charges today have already received long federal sentences.

Here's what they are:

All six have also pleaded guilty to state charges.

Six White former Mississippi law enforcement officers sentenced in federal court last month after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the torture and abuse of two Black men are scheduled to be sentenced again Wednesday – this time on state charges related to the same January 2023 crimes.

The hearing is scheduled to take place in a circuit court that sits in the heart of the Rankin County seat of Brandon – across the street from a Confederate monument – and around 20 miles from the home where the racially charged torture of Parker and Jenkins took place.

The defendants, who include five former Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies; Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, Jeffrey Middleton, and former Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield, pleaded guilty in August to state and federal charges tied to the abuse of Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins.

Their state sentences will potentially run concurrently with the federal prison sentences they were handed in a Jackson courtroom last month: 10 years for Hartfield, 17.5 years for Middleton, 17.5 years for Opdyke, just over 27 years for McAlpin, 20 years for Elward and 40 years for Dedmon.

It’s unclear whether the state charges will result in any additional prison time since they’d likely be concurrent with the federal sentences.

Read more about how today's sentencing could play out here.