A fourth Mississippi "Goon Squad" deputy was punished for several instances of torture.
On Wednesday, the fourth of six former law enforcement officials from Mississippi who had entered a guilty plea and admitted to torturing two Black men for racist reasons in January 2023 was given a lengthy jail term.
Former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Christian Dedmon was given a 40-year jail term for his involvement in the torment of Eddie Terrell Parker and Michael Corey Jenkins, as well as for leading a different torture session in December 2022 of Alan Schmidt, a White man.
Dedmon apologized and claimed he would never forgive himself for the suffering he had caused, but he did not look at Jenkins or Parker during his remarks.
In a Jackson federal court earlier on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Daniel Opdyke, another former deputy, to 17.5 years in prison for his part in torturing Jenkins and Parker. He may have spent twenty years behind bars.
Opdyke sobbed uncontrollably in court on Wednesday, apologizing to Jenkins and Parker and stating that his time in jail had allowed him to consider "how I transformed into the monster I became that night."
Opdyke declared, "The weight of my actions and the harm I've caused will haunt me every day," prior to the announcement of his punishment. "I wish I could take away your suffering."
Before Opdyke could continue speaking, Parker put his head in his hands, closed his eyes, got up, and left the courtroom.
Judge Tom Lee of the U.S. District Court stated that although Opdyke may not have known everything about the Goon Squad when Middleton urged him to join, he was aware that it involved the use of excessive force. "You were not a passive observer, you actively participated in that brutal attack," Lee stated.
Two more cops were given years in jail on Tuesday. Hunter Elward, a former sheriff's deputy, was sentenced to little over 20 years in jail; Jeffrey Middleton, another former deputy and the head of the "Goon Squad" that mistreated the two men, was given a sentence of 17.5 years.
Lee is set to sentence the two remaining cops, former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield and former deputy Brett McAlpin, on Thursday.
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