Emma Holmes served her full time in a Mississippi prison, and 8 additional months. See why
Emma Holmes served her time in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. All 30 years of it. But when she thought it was time for her to be released, she was told she was not eligible.
MDOC officials could not document all the time Holmes spent in Grenada County Jail for the crime for which she was later convicted, so she had to stay locked up for 235 days longer than her sentence. Or so she believes, and she's filing suit to be compensated for that time.
Holmes was 33 when she was sentenced as a habitual offender convicted on a drug charge. Now 67, she is trying to catch up on the 30 years she wasn't able to be with her five children. The youngest was just over a year old when she was sent to prison.
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After her arrest, she spent time in custody in the Grenada County Jail. That time was supposed to be applied to her sentence, but only 300 of the 535 days she spent in jail was credited to her. That left 235 days — approximately eight months — that were not taken off the end of her sentence.
Now, she wants that time back.
Holmes' attorney Arthur Calderon filed a federal lawsuit asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the two-thirds of a year she was kept in prison beyond what she believed was her official release date, claiming her Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law was violated.
Court records show MDOC in 2009 had a notarized document that verified the time she was supposed to be credited, but when prison officials contacted the Grenada County Jail in 2016, the jail had no record of Holmes' time there. MDOC refused to credit that time to Holmes.
"I gave them all my papers and everything, but they told me I was too late," Holmes said.
Click here to see Emma Holmes' jail and prison documents
Holmes tried to appeal her case to MDOC again in 2017, but the appeal was rejected. She filed in 2019 another request to be released, but she was ordered to remain in prison until April 2020.
"It's like her civil liberties don't count," Greenville attorney George "Boo" Hollowell said during a rally in Jackson.
Some of the defendants are asking for a summary judgment, meaning they want the judge to make a decision on the case before it proceeds any further. Former MDOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall and Deputy Commissioner Jeworski Jay Mallett deny Holmes' allegations and claim they have qualified immunity from prosecution.
Former Grenada County Sheriff Alton Strider was dismissed as a defendant in the case.
The remaining defendants named in the lawsuit deny Holmes' allegations.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections can’t comment on pending litigation, MDOC Communications Director Kate Head said in an email.
The case was scheduled to begin trial on Feb. 19, but the trial was postponed while pending motions are being considered.
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This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Emma Holmes says she was kept in prison 8 months longer than sentence
