Former Mississippi district attorney sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for bribery scheme

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The former district attorney of Mississippi’s largest county was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in prison for taking bribes in a scheme that ensnared a number of city officials.

Former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens was charged on accusations that he solicited $250,000 in bribes in exchange for awarding city contract bids to certain people.

“He took an oath to uphold the law, and yet he solicited $250,000 in bribes to rig what should have been a fair and open bidding system for city contracts,” said U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan during the court hearing, WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, reported.

In addition to his prison sentence, the court also ordered Owens to pay a $100,000 fine.

“I can’t begin to tell you the shame I feel,” Owens said in court. “I betrayed myself, my family, my friends, and my colleagues, by my foolish and repugnant actions.”

Former Jackson City Council President Aaron Banks was also sentenced Thursday to almost four years in prison in connection to the scheme. Last summer, former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy related to the scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date.

The indictment accused Owens of taking bribes from two FBI agents posing as real estate developers and facilitating more than $80,000 in bribes to Banks, Lumumba and Angelique Lee, the Democratic former vice president of the Jackson City Council, in exchange for their help advancing a development project.

Lee and Sherik Marve Smith, a relative of Owens, pleaded guilty to the federal bribery charges in 2024.

Before first being elected as district attorney in 2019, Owens had been the lead attorney in Mississippi for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal-leaning group known for bringing lawsuits over issues including civil rights.

Owens ran as a criminal justice reformer, saying he would focus on prosecuting violent crime while looking for alternatives to jail and prison for nonviolent offenders.