A Mississippi state judge on Thursday dismissed second-degree murder charges against two former police officers accused of fatally beating a Black man during a violent 2019 arrest. In a rare judicial move, Hinds County Judge Faye Peterson intervened after prosecutors finished their case against Desmond Barney and Lincoln Lampley for the Jan. 13, 2019, death of 62-year-old George Robinson. Peterson ruled that prosecutors did not present enough evidence during the trial that began on Monday and moved to drop the charges with prejudice—meaning the two former Jackson police officers cannot be retried. “There was nothing on its face that was illegal,” Peterson said on Thursday. “The detention of a suspect is not a criminal act and there was no proof presented that they were conspiring.”
Prosecutors argued Robinson was slammed into the pavement and repeatedly hit in the head and chest after being pulled over during a traffic stop. Robinson died two days later. During the trial, Mississippi’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark LeVaughn told jurors that Robinson died from multiple head injuries and his death was labeled a homicide. After the ruling on Thursday, Robinson’s sister, Bettersten Wade, told reporters she believes the two officers will pay for their crimes eventually. “I’m not going to hate nobody,” she said. “In this world, you have to be careful of what you do, because you never know. We never know. I’m not going to hate them. But I hate it happened to my brother.”
