Mississippi ex-deputy gets 20-year sentence in racist torture of 2 Black men

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

A former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to about 20 years in prison for his part in torturing two Black men after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.

Hunter Elward was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge. Five other former law enforcement officers are set for sentencing this week.

All six of the former officers pleaded guilty to several federal charges in August. They admitted subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture last year.

Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing in a “mock execution” that went awry.