By C1 Staff
JACKSON — Following a series of investigative reports, the FBI is now looking into whether officers at a Mississippi complex were enabling inmates to kill one another.
The Clarion-Ledger reports that inmate Tyler Smith told the FBI that an officer opened the door to Clifton Majors’ cell in 2013, allowing Smith to carry out a gang killing. Smith has since pleaded guilty to the charge.
Records show that prison officials fired the tower officer the next day, but then-Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps denied the officer played any role in the killing. Epps claimed the lock to Majors’ cell door had been “jammed.”
Smith countered with his own story, saying that the door had been electronically unlocked. Another inmate confirmed his story.
The Clarion-Ledger’s investigation into Mississippi prisons began in September, and found a system where gangs and corruption were rampant.
Majors was on the Simon City Royals’ hit list for cooperating with authorities investigating the gang’s 2010 killing of 50-year-old inmate Percy Barnes inside South Mississippi Correctional Institution.
Both Smith and Majors had smoked weed together, and, as members of the Royals, discussed the gang’s “Kill on Sight” order. Smith quoted Majors as saying if the Royals wanted him to kill Smith, then he would feel obligated to do it.
Smith said that after that, he felt obligated to kill Majors, even though he was several weeks away from walking free from prison.
Despite his repeated violence against staff members and inmates, Smith ended up on the cleanup crew the night of Sept. 1, 2013, where the cell door was opened for him and he killed Majors.
The report by Corrections Investigation Division into Majors’ killing is 10 pages long, and has interviews restricted solely to Smith and another inmate named Carlos Moore who confirmed that he saw a CO open the door for Smith to Majors’ cell.
Neither the tower officer nor the floor officer was ever interviewed about the incident. Officials said no officer has ever been prosecuted for opening doors to enable inmates to assault or kill other inmates.
Smith told the FBI that the officers didn’t know he was going to kill Majors, which wouldn’t hold them accountable as accessories since the law involves a “foreseeable result.”