JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Court of Appeals has overturned a witness intimidation conviction in a case tied to allegations of voter fraud in Canton, a city with a history of troubled elections.
The appellate court ruled Tuesday that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence to support a jury’s verdict against Courtney Rainey during her 2019 trial in Madison County Circuit Court.
Rainey is a former Canton school board member and had served as the city of Canton’s director of human and cultural needs. She was indicted on charges related to Canton’s 2017 city elections, when she was supporting a candidate.
During Rainey’s trial, the jury could not reach a verdict on one voter fraud charge. After jurors convicted her of witness intimidation, Circuit Judge Dewey Key Arthur gave Rainey a 15-year prison sentence, with three of those years suspended.
Rainey argued on appeal that the witness intimidation law, as applied in her case, “deprived her of her constitutional right to free speech, and that the circuit court’s sentence was grossly disproportional and violated Rainey’s Eighth Amendment right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment,” according to Court of Appeals records.
The records show Rainey helped a man and a woman in Canton register to vote as they were sitting on a porch drinking beer, and she then gave $10 to someone with them to buy the next round of beer. Records also show Rainey later gave the woman $10 for a meal after the woman cast an absentee ballot in the Canton election.
After investigators started looking into allegations of voter fraud, Rainey found out about the investigation and went to ask the woman what she had told the officers, court records said. The appeals court ruling said there was “no credible evidence” that Rainey had told the woman to give false statements to investigators.
Canton is a central Mississippi city of about 12,100 residents. Six people were convicted of voting-related charges after 2009 Canton elections, and one was convicted after 2013 elections.
Several people were indicted on charges related to the 2017 Canton elections. Court of Appeals records show:
- Charges were dismissed against four people.
- One man, Andrew Grant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit vote fraud, and he received a five-year suspended sentence.
- A woman, Valerie Smith, pleaded guilty to a vote fraud felony, and she received a five-year suspended sentence.
- Another man, Donnell Robinson, was indicted on multiple vote fraud charges as a habitual offender; he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was ordered to pay a fine but received no prison time.
- The case of Vickie McNeil, a former Canton police chief and former Canton alderwoman, was unlikely to go to trial because of her poor health.
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