Mississippi Woman Hanging

Police in Mississippi have arrested a second man in the death of a Black woman found hanging from a tree and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect. Jackson police said in a statement late Tuesday that they arrested 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging behind an abandoned home on Aug. 3. Like Fortune and the first man arrested, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, Lloyd is Black. Lloyd appeared at a court hearing Wednesday and was denied bond. Ratliff was arrested this month on murder charges and pleaded not guilty. Police say they issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect, but gave no details about that person.

A police detective says Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer. Police Det. Samuel Dukes, citing the medical examiner's opinion, offered the testimony Friday during a hearing for the first of two men who have been arrested in the killing. Like Fortune, both defendants are Black. A third man turned himself in Friday. Fortune's hanging body was discovered on Aug. 3. The case has attracted widespread attention because it has recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state.