Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch wants reversal ruling of JPD cop Anthony Fox case

Mississippi's Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a response this week in support of the appeal of Anthony Fox, the former Jackson police officer sentenced in the manslaughter death of George Robinson in 2019.

In the brief filed by Fitch related to Fox's appeal in the Circuit Court of Hinds County First Judicial District, the State agrees that the Court should reverse the ruling in the case against Fox and render judgment in his favor.

This case is regarding the death of 62-year-old George Robinson after a struggle with JPD officers. The incident happened on Jan. 13, 2019, when Fox and two other JPD officers assisted on a drug bust.

Before Robinson's arrest, court documents note, he had been dealing drugs, leading to a scuffle with officers where he suffered a small superficial abrasion on his head after resisting arrest. Shortly after being arrested, Robinson was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct but was later released. Robinson, who had prior health issues and was on medication, suffered a seizure hours later and two days later died of a subdural hematoma.

A jury later convicted Fox of culpable-negligence manslaughter, the core element of which is "negligence so gross as to be tantamount to a wanton disregard of, or utter indifference to, the safety of human life."

Fox was sentenced to 20 years in prison (15 suspended), but Lincoln Lampley and Desmond Barney, the other Jackson police officers, were cleared of charges in the death of Robinson.

Fitch's brief filed Monday said, "that conviction should not stand. Our Supreme Court has long warned about the dangers of the culpable-negligence statute. In particular, that Court has cautioned that juries may be 'overinclined to convict on proof of what is in fact no more than simple negligence.'”

Fitch, citing previous case law in Brown v. State, said the evidence did not rise to the level of culpable negligence and noted that in the Brown case, the court "recently reversed a culpable-negligence-manslaughter conviction on facts that are strikingly on point here."

The court said that the conviction shouldn't stand. Medical experts at the trial "agreed or conceded that it does not require great force to cause a subdural hematoma," and agreed that Robinson’s medical conditions, "particularly his use of blood thinners, were contributing factors for his death."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS Attorney General wants reversal of conviction in Anthony Fox case