LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
ance — at the same time her husband’s kayak rental company shut
down. These losses paved the way
for more setbacks: they scraped by
on their unemployment benefits,
they sold their house, Dianne got
a part-time job that paid even less
than unemployment. And though
they are poor by the federal standard, there is no safety net to provide them with health insurance.
As Dianne put it, “If something
happens, then I’m going to have to
deal with it.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Radley
Balko writes about a Mississippi
cold case — part real-life murder mystery, part exposé of the
state’s justice system. The crime
is the gruesome 1997 murder of
39-year-old Kathy Mabry. The
town is Belzoni, Miss., a place
rooted in Civil Rights-era racial turmoil, and which today is
home to the World Catfish Festival and the “Miss Catfish” pageant. This is the part of the state
that produced great bluesmen
like Sonny Boy Williamson and
Elmore James. Balko introduces
us to characters who could have
sprung from a Mississippi murder
ballad: J.D. “Bubba” Roseman, the
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
county’s first black sheriff; Steven
Hayne, a cigar-smoking medical
examiner who performed autopsies in
the basement of a loBalko
cal funeral home; Miintroduces us
chael West, a dentist
to characters
and self-proclaimed
who could have
bite-mark expert
sprung from
who assisted on, and
a Mississippi
sometimes videotaped, those autopmurder ballad.”
sies; and Julie Mae
Wilson, the mother of
the victim, who spent most of her
life working in cotton fields.
After 15 years the case remained
unsolved, and lawyers from the
Mississippi Innocence Project began to investigate. Their scrutiny
raised questions about the state’s
justice system and prompted criticisms that Mississippi officials were
more interested in defending themselves than solving the case — and
preventing future crimes. Roseman,
the sheriff, is among the critics; as
he puts it, “Good people live here.
They deserve to feel safe. I
took it personal.”
ARIANNA