By Charlton Stanley, Weekend Contributor
Jackson Attorney
Photo by Jackson, MS police department
As I write this, the news is still coming in, and the full story is far from being told. I will provide breaking news as I hear it, but our intrepid bloggers should consider the comments an Open Thread. If you have solid news to report, please do so, and source the information. Otherwise it is just gossip.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that conspiracy theorists are breaking out the tinfoil hats.
What do we know about the death of Mississippi attorney Mark Mayfield? He lived in Ridgeland, Mississippi, a bedroom suburb just north of the city of Jackson. He was 57 years old. About 9:00 Friday morning, he was found dead in his home of a single gunshot wound. There was a note, but authorities have not revealed the contents. That is not unusual. When I worked in the state that was general policy with investigators across the state. Sometimes suicide notes are poignant, sad, and express intense pain. Other notes have content so gross or inflammatory they could not be printed in a family newspaper. In cases of suicide notes, the families often are reluctant to permit release to the public. In other cases, the note may implicate other people in a crime, or include confidential information. If the latter is the case, release of the content of a suicide note risks compromising an ongoing investigation, especially if sealed indictments are involved. Nothing should be read into it if the note contents are not released and made public.
Mayfield was a major supporter of the Tea Party in Mississippi. They fielded a candidate to run against Senator Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, Chris McDaniel. During the run-up to the primary, several men gained illegal entry into the nursing home where Senator Cochran’s wife was staying. She has Alzheimer’s disease. The actual break-in was actually implemented by a Tea Party blogger named Clayton Kelley, who was arrested. A photo of Mrs. Cochran was posted on a website, presumably Kelley’s. It was taken down a short time later.
Kelley was arrested along with four men, including lawyer Mayfield. The others arrested in the incident were Richard Sager, a high school coach and John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg. Mary was not taken into custody because of what were described as “extensive medical conditions.”
All the men face felony conspiracy charges. I have not found a complete list of all the charges, but I am sure some would have been added later. For one there is a major HIPAA violation.
My take on this as a professional who has worked in the field for more than forty years, is that Mayfield felt he had no options left. His career as a lawyer was over. He knew he would lose his license to practice and almost certainly was going to be sent to prison. Life as he knew it in the past was ended; that is, after he was released from prison.
There are many professions where one can recover and rebuild after a conviction. Martha Stewart is an example of reinventing oneself. On the other hand, actor Fatty Arbuckle never was able to reestablish a career. Having made a study of suicide over the years, and taught a doctoral level course on Thanatology, there is one overriding element almost all suicides have in common. The subject believes there is literally no way out of the bleak situation they are in. That leads to a feeling of hopelessness. This in turn causes a kind of tunnel vision in which they can envision only one way out.
Setting political issues aside for a moment, I believe this is a time for empathy for Mark Mayfield’s family and loved ones. His criminal defense attorney, Merrida “Buddy” Coxwell is a long time acquaintance of mine, and I believe he expressed it as well as I can, “…he was a client, but more importantly, he was a friend for almost 34 years. My heart is completely broken. This is beyond tragic and the people of this community and state have lost a good man…”
The recriminations can start later. I will say; however, that my contacts in Mississippi tell me the Tea Party regulars have tight sphincter syndrome regarding what Mayfield may have put in that note.
Sources:
—ooOoo–
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not necessarily those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art is solely the author’s decision and responsibility.
Nick: No one’s relatives, alive or deceased, should be subjected to insult and ridicule; that’s below the belt and classless. And I thought there was too much of that pointless bickering, for sure.
But compared to many of the constant participants these days, enlightening insight occurs less often
Nick wrote “Saucy, I did. While not a member of the Tea Party, I do not share your derision.”
Tim Murray stated that his opponent was an imposter because the real one had been executed in Ukraine (www.timothyraymurray.com). You agree with that?
On the relationship between suicide and shame:
“Very few people kill outside of the military, and most of them are extremely disturbed individuals. James Gilligan, in his book Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic, diagnosed the root cause of murderous or suicidal violence as deep shame and humiliation, a desperate need for respect and status (and, fundamentally love and care) so intense that only killing (oneself and/or others) could ease the pain — or, rather, the lack of feeling.
“When a person becomes so ashamed of his needs (and of being ashamed), Gilligan writes, and when he sees no nonviolent solutions, and when he lacks the ability to feel love or guilt or fear, the result can be violence. But what if violence is the start? What if you condition healthy people to kill without thought? Can the result be a mental state resembling that of the person who’s internally driven to kill?
“The choice to engage in violence outside of war is not a rational one, and oft en involves magical thinking, as Gilligan explains by analyzing the meaning of crimes in which murderers have mutilated their victims’ bodies or their own. “I am convinced,” he writes,”that violent behavior, even at its most apparently senseless, incomprehensible, and psychotic, is an understandable response to an identifiable, specifiable set of conditions; and that even when it seems motivated by ‘rational’ self-interest, it is the end product of a series of irrational, self-destructive, and unconscious motives that can be studied, identified, and understood.”
“The mutilation of bodies, whatever drives it in each case, is a fairly common practice in war, although engaged in mostly by people who were not inclined to murderous violence prior to joining the military. Numerous war trophy photos from the War on Iraq show corpses and body parts mutilated and displayed in close-up, laid out on a platter as if for cannibals. Many of these images were sent by American soldiers to a website that marketed pornography. Presumably, these images were viewed as war pornography. Presumably, they were created by people who had come to love war ? not by the Himmlers or the Dick Cheneys who enjoy sending others, but by people who actually enjoyed being there, people who signed up for college money or adventure and were trained as sociopathic killers.”
How the Pentagon Turns Working-Class Men into the Deadliest Killers on the Planet
An excerpt from antiwar activist Swanson’s new book, War Is a Lie.
http://www.alternet.org/story/149165/how_the_pentagon_turns_working-class_men_into_the_deadliest_killers_on_the_planet
Goldwater was vilified by the left but they fawned over him when he retired. HBO did a doc on Goldwater after he died. It was almost all liberals interviewed about how great he was. I guess libertarians are like artists, they get no love until they die!
RTC, Goldwater often spoke out about problems he had w/ his party and he was the guy who told Nixon he had to go.
Saucy, I live in Madison, the mecca of liberalism. I could tell you many bars where you would find rednecks. You can find them in Boston, anywhere. You don’t need to go to conservative places to find them.
Al Z: Goldwater was admirable at times, on certain issues. He believed in a strong congress, one that functioned. He respected the judiciary, and was honest in his concept of liberty. Unfortunately, he was loyal to a fault to the Republican party, and refused to make public many of his criticisms.
Saucy, I did. While not a member of the Tea Party, I do not share your derision. Smaller govt. is their core belief, something I abide.
Nick wrote “formerly entertaining, pete”
The one who emulates a junior high school girl.
I am entertained by the people who jump in with positions which cannot be defended and they solve that problem by never defending them.
Nick wrote “you don’t need to go to a ‘backwater town’ for red neck discussions … couple of bars in my old Chicago neighborhood”
Or most of Orange County, California. Or much of Texas and Oklahoma.
P.S. Did you read my comment on Tim Murray?
The underlying “adventure” is so Watergate, such that is worth pointing out that about 75% or more of the characters involved in that fiasco were LAWYERS! Lawyers that pay attention know what is right and what is wrong, but like all other endeavors practices in exchange for money, there are those that do right and those that just do (think of Yoda’s admonishment: there is no try, just do and don’t do). NeighborDaveSays: There is do right, or just do!”
Everything else is just that, “else” (or maybe “other” or “other than”.
Just another rant joining the rest.
In face to face society, this would be a much better exchange, since disdain for inane could be read from the body. NeighborDaveSays: show dIsdain for the inane
And RTC, you don’t need to go to a “backwater town” for red neck discussions. I could give you a couple of bars in my old Chicago neighborhood near Addison and Western that would fit that bill.
RTC, Both you and the formerly entertaining, pete, have the same opinion vis a vis the changes since January. You express yours thoughtfully and w/ class. We all see the world through our unique prism. I guess maybe I missed a lot of the depth and wisdom you remember from a bygone era. Maybe because I was too busy warding off vile attacks, including but limited to, ridicule of my deceased sister. The attacks were an upfront effort to drive myself, and others who did not want to be part of the well established echo chamber, out of here. They succeeded driving many conservatives away, beating their chests when they did. We have come to respect each other. That respect allows us to disagree on this w/ no vitriol. pete, is also from, IMO, that dark part of our history. I have made the same efforts w/ him to be civil as I have w/ you. I’ll keep trying.
I think I will change my blog name to AntiTroll. Maybe NoTrolls. What is all the side biting about here on the blog lately. Someone says something and someone else calls them a LibTard or somesuch. Lib this, lib that. A “Liberal” really does not exist anymore. A “Conservative” like Barry Goldwater is rarely seen in America. We want a choice not an echo. Who said that?
Tom Blanton wrote “Actually SpazzyMugbumps … being more of an anarchist”
SaucyMugwump is a nom de guerre, so making fun of it has no effect on me. And the fact that you immediately resort to name-calling proves that you are a child.
Tom Blanton wrote “You are clearly a partisan who believes there should be lots of rules with draconian punishments for even the slightest deviation”
Yes, let’s eliminate all punishments. Let’s not punish murder, child molesting, theft, spouse-beating, burglary, rape, drunken driving, or anything else. I’ll give you three guesses where that leads to. There has never been a prosperous, peaceful, anarchist society. Never. That should tell you something.
Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and move to Somalia, the poster-land of anarchy? Oh, yeah, that’s right, you and other anarchists love to talk a good game, but you prefer to enjoy the comforts of a civilized society all the while whining over the restrictions.
P.S. What kind of partisan am I? You must be new here.
Sorry Nick: But I have to disagree with your take on the quality of debate here since January; it’s suffered since the schism. Now perhaps the level of discussion is improved due to the enforced civility, but that doesn’t change the fact that analysis of law and politics on a deeper philosophical plane seldom occurs anymore.
To cite one example of how low the quality of debate has sunk, this from another thread, where Schulte says: “RTC – any bill named after Frank is bad for the country,” Frank being former Congressman Barney Frank.
There are still some excellent comments from time to time and not all from the left side of the aisle either. For instance, I quite appreciated Bob Esq.’s comment regarding how the Heller decision changed the way the 2d Am was applied to the states. Unfortunately, quality is in short supply around here. I mean, if I wanted to debate politics with someone who thinks socialism is fascism by another name, I could simply wander in to any dive bar in any backwater town in the country.
Chuck nailed it when he said trolls are mainly interested in interfering with the exchange of ideas. And the trollery here is thick these days.
But as long as we continue to read this blog and comment here, we are all part of the group.
Pee Party Pot
Pee Party Cold
Pee Party in the Pot Nine Days Old.
When I read history about the American Revolution these present day Tea Party folks do have a place. In London.
This may be an unpopular opinion but I tend to think that suicide can be a rational course of action sometimes. It doesn’t have to be the result of a mental problem or the idea that “The subject believes there is literally no way out of the bleak situation they are in.” Who knows what it was in this instance though. Sometimes it just makes more sense to stop existing than to continue to exist. Is it a selfish act? I guess that depends on the circumstances. But one form of a selfish act is expecting someone to exist for your own benefit. This guy’s suicide makes me think about uncomfortable issues and has made me sad; his lack of concern for my delicate preconceptions makes him selfish!
nick@7:47p.m.
Saucy and I have had discussions about that. It is sometimes funny other times tedious. Both Saucy and I evaluate issues and feel NO COMPULSION to be part of a group. Others here are similar in that regard.
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me and the other guys have decided we’re not part of a group
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it would be funny if you didn’t really believe what you write
as it is it’s just kinda sad and more than a bit delusional.
i’d say you’re more of a sad little wal-mart greeter who has nothing better to do than to hang out here all day and say “me too, me too”
you compulsively comment on all threads. making multiple entries so you will come up on the “top five list”
i’d say get help or get a life but i know better.
sad little greeter man
Everyone wants to be an anarchist. It’s the latest trend. What….libertarian isn’t ‘special’ enough anymore?
“You are clearly a TPer who believes there are no rules: the end justifies the means. Let’s say Democrats broke into the bedroom of your daughter, took nude photos of her, and used them in an online political commercial. Would that be okay?”
Actually SpazzyMugbumps, I’m not a “TPer” – I’m not a Republicrat partisan of any variety, being more of an anarchist. Maybe that’s my problem – not being caught up in phony partisan political games. I think what happened here is a little different than nude photos taken in a private home. But, I have trouble with even that rising to the level of a felony, but then unlike you and most other Americans, I am certainly not an authoritarian.
Other than a very slight invasion of privacy, what damage did the woman in the nursing home suffer? Try to hang a price tag on that. But, as usual, I can only shake my head in wonder at the depths of idiocy these partisan hacks will sink in order to rule over the lives of others. What was once amusing only becomes tiresome and boring after a while.
You are clearly a partisan who believes there should be lots of rules with draconian punishments for even the slightest deviation, unless the political cult of your affection benefits, right? Anyway, from where I sit the difference between tea party clowns, progressive nit wits and regular Republicrat corporatists is much the same as the difference between the various excrements one might find lying about any animal farm. However, it is always worth a chuckle when someone steps in a pile.