This story has been updated wth new developments. Two former Mississippi sheriff's deputies were sentenced Tuesday for torturing two Black men in a racist assault. Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to just over 20 years in prison for that assault and his role in a separate episode where a white man was sexually assaulted. Jeffrey Middleton, the 46-year-old leader of the so-called "Goon Squad" that abused the men, was given a 17.5-year prison sentence, the AP reports. US District Judge Tom Lee is also due to sentence four other former law enforcement officers who admitted to torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.
- Elward and Middleton, along with fellow former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, and Daniel Opdyke, as well as former Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the incident. Dedmon and Opdyke will be sentenced Wednesday and Hartfield and McAlpin on Thursday. Federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentences for the officers.