Downfall of Bobby DeLaughter, a civil rights legend

Sad to read this morning’s news about famed civil rights prosecutor, Bobby DeLaughter. He was the Mississippi lawyer who obtained a criminal conviction in the Medgar Evers civil rights murder case some 30 years after the fact. His work inspired the movie, “Ghosts of Mississippi.”

DeLaughter went on to become a judge in Mississippi, and he’s been caught up in that state’s judicial corruption scandal.  Much of it goes back to disgraced trial lawyer Dicke Scruggs.  But that’s beside the fact.

Corruption on the bench is the hallmark of a corrupt state. For obvious reasons, we can’t tolerate it.  Still, it’s hard not to be witsful about this one.  DeLaughter’s work on the Evers case is the stuff of legends. For his sake and for the sake of the Evers family, I hope he’s remembered for that work and not what came after.

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