Mississippi AG Won't Retry Officer After Deadlocked Jury in Jaylen Lewis Shooting
Mississippi's attorney general will not retry a Capitol Police officer after a jury deadlocked on a manslaughter charge in the 2022 fatal shooting of Jaylen Lewis.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch will not seek a new trial for a state Capitol Police officer whose manslaughter case ended in a hung jury this week, her office said, closing one chapter of a prosecution that had drawn attention to policing in the state's majority-Black capital.
Jurors on Monday could not agree on a verdict for officer Michael Rhinewalt, and they acquitted a second Capitol Police officer, Steven Frederick, who faced the same manslaughter charge. The two white officers were accused in the September 2022 shooting death of Jaylen Lewis, a 25-year-old Black motorist, in Jackson.
Fitch's office, which handled the prosecution, said in a statement that it had "followed the process" and would not pursue another trial against Rhinewalt. The statement said that when a jury is tied, the benefit of the doubt goes to law enforcement officers, adding that those who wear the uniform have earned that consideration.
Both officers testified that they fired in self-defense, saying Lewis rammed a police vehicle and then drove toward them. Merrida Coxwell, an attorney for Frederick, described the encounter as tragic and said the officers feared for their lives and for each other's safety, adding that the situation could have ended differently had Lewis stopped.
Prosecutors argued that Lewis and his passenger were unaware they were being stopped by police, because the officers were in unmarked cars and wore plain clothes with vests.
The case has fueled broader questions about policing in Jackson and led to a lawsuit from Lewis's mother. Rhinewalt also faces a separate aggravated assault charge in another 2022 police shooting. Sherita Harris says she was shot in the head by Rhinewalt during a pursuit that followed a traffic stop. Rhinewalt and another Capitol Police officer charged in that case have pleaded not guilty, saying Harris fled after they left their patrol vehicle and that they heard gunshots from her car as they chased it. Rhinewalt's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.