Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson feels like he is on the front lines of the issues that face Mississippi corrections personnel in handling the mentally ill in the state.
Raffell Franklin was first held on a charge of first-degree murder and shooting into a motor vehicle on April 7, 2017. He was found incompetent to stand trial by doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital in 2019.
Three years later, he’s still in Johnson’s custody — without trial.
“I can’t let him out on society,” Johnson said.
Authorities and state mental health officials wouldn’t disclose Franklin’s mental condition, citing the federal health privacy law.
Franklin’s situation has been the subject of multiple hearings in both circuit court and chancery court. Another hearing, this time in chancery court, is scheduled for this week. His lawyer, Allen Peterson of Jackson, didn’t even show up for the last hearing in circuit court in late January. Johnson said.
Peterson did not return repeated calls seeking comment. MCIR also attempted to contact Franklin’s family in Laurel with no success. Current District Attorney Chris Hennis did not return repeated phone calls for comment on the length or complexity of Franklin’s situation.
“Even if we get an order committing him, the issue will be how soon Whitfield can come get him,” Johnson said.
That situation may change by the end of 2023.
Mississippi State Hospital is in the final planning stages of a project to renovate a building on the hospital’s Whitfield campus in Rankin County, said Adam Moore, communications director for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. The renovation would increase the hospital’s forensic bed capacity to 83 beds for evaluations and observations, build in a multi-floor approach to ensuring adequate security for the patients housed on the building and “create new opportunities for programming that encourages rehabilitation,” he said.
The estimated budget is over $26.4 million. The Department of Mental Health, along with the Bureau of Buildings and professionals associated with the project, plan to take bids this year, with the renovation work hopefully beginning this year and lasting through 2023, although Moore said the COVID-19 pandemic could affect these anticipated dates.
One of the services the forensic unit will perform is providing a more secure environment of care, for individuals civilly committed through a chancery court who have been found not competent to proceed in a trial and not restorable to competency.
Franklin’s case seems to fall under into that category, Johnson said.
“He’s not competent to stand trial and never will be,” said Johnson. “We sent him down there, and they sent him right back. They couldn’t keep him because they had no long-term facility.”
The expanded forensic unit also will provide evaluation services that assess a circuit court defendant’s competency to proceed legally and the mental state at the time of the alleged offense. Many of these evaluations can be conducted and completed on an outpatient basis. In some cases, evaluations may require an inpatient admission to the State Hospital.
The unit also will provide competency restoration services that are educational, and psychological programs attempting to restore defendants to competency to proceed in a trial, and mental health treatment for defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity.
“DMH has worked for several years to decrease wait times for Forensic Services, and the additional beds are only one way to do that. Discussion over the past several years regarding Forensic Services has involved the MacArthur Justice Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which hired Dr. Joel Dvoskin, a forensic psychologist, who has subsequently consulted with DMH on Forensic Services,” Moore said.
While work is underway on the expansion, the State Hospital has converted 21 beds on its campus to provide evaluation and restoration services. But COVID has caused “significant personnel loss,“ resulting in fewer available, staffed beds to receive patients, Moorensaid.
The hospital has begun offering a Forensic Psychology Fellowship and has recruited
and retained five new forensic psychiatrists and psychologists.
Workplace confrontation escalates
Franklin, 30, of Laurel is accused of the April, 7, 2017, fatal shooting of Eddie Davis, 25, of Louin. He turned himself in to Jones County sheriff’s deputies the day of the shooting, according to reporting from the Jasper County News.
According to then Bay Springs Assistant Police Chief Tony Wedgeworth, the Bay Springs Police Department received a call at approximately 7:45 a.m. that Friday from Peco Farms about shots being fired. When law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, they found Davis had been shot multiple times with a .45 caliber handgun.
Raffell Franklin has been held on charges of first-degree murder and shooting into a motor vsince April 7, 2017., despite being found incompetent to stand trial. Jasper County Jail
Wedgeworth, now Bay Springs’ police chief, said eyewitnesses of the shooting told authorities that Franklin shot two times through the driver side windshield of the car where Davis was sitting. Davis then exited the vehicle and Franklin fired several more shots, striking Davis three times. Jasper County Coroner Randy Graham pronounced Davis dead at the scene.
Both Franklin and Davis were Peco employees.
