Some time ago, I began a story about the Pearl, Mississippi, Rankin County law enforcement goon squad. These were thugs and criminals in uniforms with badges who heinously brutalized two Black men in January 2023. I wanted to write a story about the connections across Mississippi law enforcement departments statewide and through the decades; I wanted to compare what happened to the two Black men in 2023 with how I ended up on Mississippi death row for a crime that took place in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1992. There are many other actions from law enforcement officers in counties across the state to choose from to show these connections, but I think I’ve finally found one that brings what happened in Pearl to its full relief. Crackerism was alive and rampant when I fell victim to it in the early 1990s; today, it is rambunctious, rancid, and rabid.
On May 12, 2022, a 21-year-old young lady named Makaylia Shaylynn Jolley was arrested and charged for the murder of her two-month-old daughter, Khlaysie, in Pearl, Mississippi. I will take this moment and ask Makaylia’s forgiveness for telling this story before reaching out to ask for her Blessings. But I do feel strongly that she will understand, because she will know that there is someone calling out these people’s travesty of justice and double-standard racist-ass bullshit that has put her in prison for the rest of her life while backroom bargains find ways to slap the hands of six racist cracker cops for far worse crimes.
At the time of her arrest, Makaylia had recently given birth, and it is said that she was going through postpartum depression. Rather than prosecutors and law enforcement considering her situation and getting her the help she desperately needed, they charged her with capital murder for the death of her child. This is bad enough on its own, but what I want to point out the most is how they began their public persecution of her before they prosecuted her.
A Rankin County Pearl Mississippi prosecutor named Bubba Bramletth—ha! I swear, how many goddamn “Bubba’s” do I have to talk about?—who oversees all public prosecutions within this county, handled Makaylia’s case. He was gung-ho to paint this young lady as some monster that came alive in a children’s nightmare. He exhibited no empathy, no compassion or understanding to this young woman’s unstable mental condition and sufferings. For Bubba, the options were to kill this feral beast or cage it for natural life.
Check out this timeline:
May 12, 2022: Makaylia is arrested and charged;
November 17, 2022: A grand jury indicts her for for capital murder;
May 15, 2023: Madison and Rankin County DA’s office announces the State of Mississippi will seek the death penalty at trial;
September 13, 2023: A mental evaluation is submitted to the court that Makaylia is competent to stand trial;
October 31, 2023: Rankin County DA’s office sends a plea offer to Makaylia to plead guilty to capital murder and be sentenced to life in prison without parole; they give Makaylia a deadline of Friday, November 3, 2023 at 5 pm;
November 3, 2023: Makaylia files that petition through her public defender;
November 6, 2023: Makaylia and her public defender appear before Judge Steve Radcliff to plead guilty.
Alright, let me mention something before I get back to good ole boy Bubba. I want you to remember this name, Judge Steve Ratcliff, “Rat” as I call him. This fellow presided over not only Makaylia but also the six ex-officers’ cases I told you about last time. It’s Rat who passed sentences on both. And do keep in mind that Bubba sent Makaylia an ultimatum on October 31, 2023, to either plead guilty by November 3, 2023, or face the death penalty (giving her only three days to make a pretty big decision), and then on November 6, 2023, only three days later, there she is standing in front of Judge Ratcliff being sentenced to natural life in prison. Six days. Damn. Six fucking days. Makes me wonder if this judge and this prosecutor were having some God complex. It’s said that God said “let there be light” and He created all matters of life to sustain the living. I’m guessing Bubba and Ray reckoned, “Hell, if God can give life in six days, we can use those same six days to destroy a life.”
I’ve given you the who, what, when, where, why, and how ole Bubba arrested, charged, sought the ultimate penalty of death, and then threatened Makaylia with execution if she didn’t meet the three-day deadline to agree to spending the rest of her natural life in prison. And how three days later her court-appointed, county-paid attorney filed a garbage-ass plea agreement acquiescing to Bubba’s intimidation. Makaylia stands before a judge, “Rat,” three days after this for sentencing. So y’all keep this in mind when comparing this to the what, when, where, who, why, and how of the treatment given to the six members of the goon squad.
After this horrendous plea deal is done, good ole Bubba says this to the press: “This is an unexplainable and heinous crime against an innocent child. My office thanks the witnesses, the EMTs, the medical providers at Blair E. Batson and the Mississippi Children’s Safety Center, the Pearl Police Department and the Pearl Fire Department for their work on this case. Those men and women will forever be affected by what they saw on May 12, 2022. The very woman who was supposed to love and support Khalysie is the one who chose drugs over her children and caused Khalysie’s death. Makaylia Jolley will die in prison where she belongs for committing these crimes against her daughter.”
Okay… that is very powerful shit. I need to rest my mind a minute before I continue, but really people, please! Let what this man said REALLY sink in, okay? Ole Mr. Bubba is really after this 21-year-old young woman. From where I sit on Mississippi death row, I see a few factors that played into Bubba’s psyche here. First, is the obvious fact that Makaylia is Black. As a Black man who was wrongfully convicted of shooting a White woman in Mississippi in the early ’90s, I have no doubt that race guided the choices of Good Ole Boys Rat and Bubba. Another factor is that she’s underprivileged and couldn’t afford to hire an attorney who could properly defend her. The illogical and racial superiority from an elitist mentality, coupled with social standings in wealth and connections to power over a certain community of disenfranchised people, likely emboldened this asshole to coerce and intimidate her with a three-day deadline ultimatum. It is also apparent that he does not possess the education to comprehend how addiction enforces and reinforces a person’s heightened paranoia, especially under stressful situations, such as being a single mother with two very young children and struggling daily to care for them, and herself.
Finally, I can only imagine that Bubba is not familiar with being a woman. While I share Makaylia’s experiences up to this point, I could never pretend that I know what it’s like to have given birth. But by his actions, Bubba simply DO NOT have a goddamn clue about what women endure, and his unspeakable display clearly states that he simply DO NOT give a fuck. Even with my limited knowledge of the subject, I can safely say he has no comprehensive intellect about postpartum depression that mothers can develop after giving birth. Bubba’s doo-little mind never could or would imagine himself in similar circumstances and situations: Black. Woman. Addicted. Impoverished. Young, with two small children, struggling day to day in the state of Mississippi. A state that happens to be last in education and first in racism. Bubba would not have lifted a goddman finger, much less a helping hand, to this young lady.
Meanwhile, in the midst of Bubba’s callous pursuit of “justice” against Makaylia from May 12, 2022 to November 6, 2023, he was also in a position to take charge as well as oversee the criminal prosecutions of these “upstanding officers.” As a reminder, these six White officers enacted unbridled torture on two Black men. Makaylia had been arrested and in jail for approximately eight months when these six sworn law-abiding officers did their unspeakable acts on January 24, 2023; as good ole boy Bubba was threatening Makaylia and giving her ultimatum deadlines or face the death penalty if she didn’t plea out to life without parole, Bubba wasn’t saying anything to the press about these six terrorist officers.
So, I just have to goddamn ask. Why was this holier-than-thou avenging angel redneck cracker not speaking about how dastardly these White boys were, or how he would use every means at his disposal to persecute and prosecute these heinous criminals to the fullest extent of the law? He wasn’t calling these two Black men innocent victims nor was he out in public decrying how these vile acts were going to affect these two men for the rest of their lives. No words about how these six officers, who were sworn to protect and serve these men, chose instead to torture those same men. Not a peep about how these six thugs in uniforms should die in prison, just like Makaylia, for their horrendous crimes.
I’m just saying. These two cases were handled pretty goddamn differently. At the very least this prosecutor could have had the decency to pretend he was fair-minded by speaking on these horrific crimes these officers committed. He could have tried to give the smallest impression that no one is above the law and that he takes every crime seriously. After all, he was the DA of Rankin County and sworn to serve and protect the citizens of Mississippi. Yet, in the articles I have about these six White hoodlums, the only place I see Bubba’s name mentioned is from an article by Mississippi Today where he “confirmed his office was reviewing the criminal case involving the Rankin County ‘goon squad’ but he won’t divulge details, including how many cases have been dismissed or how far back his review will go.” All he said directly was, “What these six officers did violated the public trust and shook the foundation of our justice system.” This is tantamount to giving them a slap on the wrist. “Yee-haw! Get a rope, boys!” Damn. Talk about the “cat got a motherfucker’s tongue.”
Bubba’s feeling all shy at the moment, bless his heart. Bubba ain’t allowed to say these “quiet” parts out loud as this ain’t 1825 or 1925. Things done up and changed here in Mis-sippi you understand, and folks today will run his racist ass out of office as prosecutor if he said these things. Being that ole black cat done up and taken Bubba’s forked tongue, he says it’ll be okay if this here Black man translates that there klan-speak for you good people. I’m happy to oblige and speak for this good ole boy. In klan-speak, when he says he is “reviewing the case,” and that he “won’t divulge any details about other cases” or how far back his reviewing will go, what he’s saying is that he’ll sit these six boys down and give them a “good” talking-to. Set them straight, ya understand. That he ain’t telling y’all shit because he’s really not about to review a fucking thing, and he definitely ain’t about to share klan secrets with y’all. These boys was only funning around rough-housing with these two niggers. Y’all should be happy they niggers still breathing, so why don’t y’all go’ne back home and just let this be alright because at least they weren’t taken out back and hanged for misusing and spoiling that good White Christain gal making her sin with this foolishness. Things just got a tad bit out of hand is all. Can’t y’all take a goddamn joke. Jeez!
Bubba wants y’all to know that this was just an unfortunate misunderstanding. When Bubba says these six boys violated public trust and shook the foundation of the justice system, he’s saying these officers violated the klan’s trust. The problem is not that these officers committed these vile acts against these two Black men, but that they goddamn got caught and the public found out. These six boys broke the klan code of trust because they didn’t take these two niggers out back and hung them or gun them down like dogs. And now Bubba and his other redneck tobacco-chewing, snuff-dipping racists might get found out about the vile-ass shit they’ve doing against Black people. And if that happens, then the whole damn house of cards will come crashing down on them and it’ll be the end of White Man Justice. Bubba wants y’all to know that he ain’t about to ruin these fine young men’s lives over this nonsense. So y’all can just forget about that shit happening, folks. Y’all go on now. Go home. Get the fuck out my goddamn town, by God.
Before I let y’all go, here’s another thing that I see. This good ole boy Judge Steve Ratcliff, “Rat,” the fellow who will accept giving a 21/22-year-old Makaylia the rest of her life in prison only six days after Bubba issued Makaylia his ultimatum to plead out to life in prison or face the death penalty, and three days after Makaylia’s Rankin County-paid public defender accepted Bubba’s “live or die” deal, is this very same judge who tosses out all of the most serious crimes against the the good squad. Rat sentences these six White boys to a LESSER time than the Federal Judge did. As if that wasn’t satisfactory for these six unhinged brutes, Rat takes it a step further by running their prison sentence concurrently to their federal sentencing so that they are only serving a measly 15/20 years on the federal and the state sentences combined for their horrific crimes against two Black men. Yeah, I think “Rat” fits this sneaky motherfucker like a cheap-ass store-bought suit.
Let me sum this comparison up in words that these good ole boys Bubba and Rat were thinking and acting upon but were a little too modest and shy to say out loud: Who cares? Fuck these Niggers! Am I right, boys? Yee-haw!
