Ben Crump Calls Inquiry On Pauper’s Field In Mississippi

Source: Jemal Countess / Getty

Dexter Wade was the subject of several BOSSIP posts last year. He was run over and killed by an off-duty police officer in Jackson, Mississippi, then promptly buried without his family, namely his mother Bettersten Wade, being notified. Ms. Wade looked for her son for 172 days until she was finally told the truth. Let the Jackson Police Department tell it, they tried their best to identify Dexter and just couldn’t figure out who he was. Perhaps they should have tried using the prescription bottle they found on his person.

In any event, the case brought to light a bevy of deceased persons, 215 of them to be exact, who were buried nameless and unceremoniously at a pauper’s Field. Ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump is calling for justice for every single one of them according to the Jackson Advocate Online. JAO quoted Crump as saying, “We’re going to fight to bring them the honor, the dignity, and the respect and justice they deserve.”

Hinds County Coroner released a list of 672 people who were buried in pauper’s graves from 2008-2023 and the aforementioned 215 deceased have not had their families notified. To add insult to injury, upon learning of their loved ones’ demise, several families had to “buy back” the bodies from the state…

Marrio Moore 40, was left dead on a Jackson street wrapped in a tarp in February 2023. His mother, Mary Moore Glenn, was appalled to learn that she would have to pay $250 in order to take custody of her son, “We had to buy him back from the state. In order to do anything, to get a death certificate, we had to buy him back from the state.”

Gretchen Hankins of Florence, Mississippi, says that her 39-year-old son Jonathan left her home on May 20, 2022 and was found dead in a hotel room on May 23, 2023. She was never informed.

I didn’t know it for a year and seven months,” she said, having learned of his death from a chance sighting of the death roster featured on NBC News. “It’s like they threw him out like trash, just like they did the others.”

We have VERY low expectations for the state of Mississippi, but this is bad even for them.

Hopefully, Crump can get monetary damages for this egregious conduct.