Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Former Mississippi Sheriff’s Deputy Indicted for Planting Evidence at Crime Scene to Justify Fatal Shooting

In an indictment unsealed today, a former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was charged with planting a weapon at a crime scene to justify a fatal shooting. The indictment charged Walter Grant, 51, with placing a stick or baton near the body of Willie Bingham Jr. after shooting him, in order to mislead investigators into believing that Bingham had possessed a weapon prior to the shooting.

At the time of the incident, Grant was a sheriff’s deputy in Bolivar County, Mississippi. He has since retired. Grant was tried twice in state court for manslaughter; the jury was twice unable to reach a verdict.

If convicted of the federal charge, Grant faces a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison. An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the Jackson Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the cooperation of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert Mims of the Northern District of Mississippi and Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Source

Considering the damage these types of actions do to the image of law enforcement, 20 years does not seem long enough.

Silent

quote:

Originally posted by Silent:
Considering the damage these types of actions do to the image of law enforcement, 20 years does not seem long enough.

Silent

If it happened the way the indictment says. Recently in St. Louis we had a trial on a 6 year old case where an officer shot (Jason Shockley) and killed a suspect. In the time between the shooting and the state trial, the case was reviewed several times between state DA and DOJ with the result of no charges filed. The State DA, as she was leaving office, said there was new evidence and charged Shockley with Murder 1st Degree. At the trial, Shockley choose a bench trial with Judge hearing and determining guilty or not. The judge had everything from Murder 1 to Manslaughter to choose from. There was no new evidence so result was Not Guilty due to justified self defense, resulting in weeks of protests and rioting.

It now turns out that the Prosecutor and one of the Internal Affairs Detectives embellished or flat out lied to the Grand Jury to get an indictment.

A few years ago the DOJ lawyers in New Orleans engaged in a bunch of bad conduct to try and convict some officers for incidents that occurred during Hurricane Katrina. I'm not too trusting of press releases.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jsbcody,