Mississippi's Firing Squad Billboard: GovBrief #464

A Mississippi county prosecutor put up a billboard near the Tennessee line, advertising death by firing squad.

It greets drivers leaving Memphis: “Welcome to Mississippi. Where the firing squad is legal. Think twice.” Memphis is 64% Black. The prosecutor paid for the billboard and called it deterrence.

He didn’t invent the genre. In 1989, Donald Trump spent $85,000 of his own money on full-page ads in four New York papers calling for five Black and Latino teenagers to be executed for a rape DNA later proved they didn’t commit. Trump has never apologized.

He has been advocating for killing people in print, on stages, and from podiums for thirty-six years, and the country keeps electing him. He’s threatened a retired four-star general and sitting members of Congress with execution for crossing him. On day one of this second term he ordered the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty whenever possible. The Mississippi billboard is downstream.

Public support for the death penalty just hit a 50-year low, and a majority of Americans under 55 oppose it. Executions nearly doubled last year anyway. The country has moved past this. The officials have not. Use 5 Calls or Resistbot to tell your state legislators this is not the country you want to live in.

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🟢 GovBrief Intensity Score 61

Quiet Day. Weekend and holiday level.

Volume: Low (6)

Severity: Moderate (1.67)

Defining Moments: 0

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Today's Quote

Democrats are trying to say that having an ID to vote, requiring an ID to vote, is Jim Crow 2.0. The last time that I voted, I walked into the booth, stood in line with Asian people, Black people, you name it. Pulled out my ID, showed it to them, and I voted just like everybody else. There is nothing racist about that. In fact, the Democrats are the ones who are saying that they believe that we are too stupid to have an ID to vote. I call it the soft bigotry of low expectations. Black men in particular are waking up to this.

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) speaking on Fox News on May 9, 2026