Michael Corey Jenkins, left, and Eddie Terrell Parker enter the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. A third former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced for his part in the racist torture of two Black men by a group of white officers who called themselves "the Goon Squad.” Daniel Opdyke was sentenced Wednesday to 17.5 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said Opdyke may not have been fully aware of what being a member of the Goon Squad entailed when Middleton asked him to join, but he did know it involved using excessive force. “You were not a passive observer. You actively participated in that brutal attack,” Lee said. The former officers stuck to their cover story for months until finally admitting that they tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Parker. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing it in a “mock execution” that went awry.
After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, lacerating his tongue and breaking his jaw, they devised a coverup that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months. "When a new officer goes over there, they start indoctrinating people," Reynolds said. "Where is the true leadership? Why aren’t they in this court?”Dedmon and Opdyke, like Elward, also are being sentenced after pleading guilty to their roles in an assault on a white man on Dec. 4, 2022 — weeks before Jenkins and Parker were tortured. Prosecutors revealed the victim’s identity Tuesday as Alan Schmidt.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who took office in 2012 and was reelected in November after no one ran against him, revealed no details about his deputies' actions when he announced they had been fired last June. After they pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had gone rogue and promised to change the department. Jenkins and Parker have called for his resignation, and they have filed a US$400 million civil lawsuit against the department.
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