After serving nearly two decades in prison for murdering his father and stepmother in 2002, securing parole release in 2023, and a DUI charge just six months later, James Williams III has once again been released from the confines of prison.
Williams was initially handed two life sentences for the fatal shootings that happened when he was 17, in which he partially dismembered the bodies and forced a friend at gunpoint to help him dispose of them. During the trial in 2005, it was also discovered that he murdered both victims in an attempt to attain a hefty inheritance. A 2021 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for Williams to apply for parole, as justices decided juveniles cannot be sentenced to life.
In April 2023, the Mississippi Parole Board voted 3-2 in favor of Williams’ release, sparking a flurry of pushback from the victim’s family, a former prosecutor, and nearly 30 Mississippi House of Representatives members. After Williams was arrested for driving his vehicle into a ditch while intoxicated in October 2023, the board reversed their decision and said he must spend at least one year in prison to reinstate his parole since the charge was a misdemeanor.
The family of Cindy Williams, the murdered stepmother, went to social media after the convicted killer’s latest release. According to Cindy’s biological son, Zeno Mangum, they were expecting a parole hearing for Williams to take place on Sept. 16 but learned secondhand of an early release on a technicality – one the parole board played no part in.
“I desperately need some help getting in touch with Lynn Fitch,” Mangum wrote, referring to Mississippi’s Republican attorney general. “My stepbrother’s lawyer filed some motion to have him released and a judge in hinds co (sic) signed off on it. To be released immediately.”
According to court documents, Williams’ attorney contended that “the Board’s finding that he committed a misdemeanor offense…is a finding that he committed a technical violation of the conditions of his parole.” Because it was the first revocation of parole for a technical violation, counsel argued Williams should only be jailed for 90 days.
“Since he has already served more than ninety days in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, he maintains that he should be released immediately and returned to parole. The State agrees that Mr. Williams is entitled to the requested relief,” a judgment signed by Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Debra Gibbs and Assistant District Attorney Joe Hemleben said. “The Board’s order returning him to prison for at least one year is illegal and is hereby VACATED.”
State Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican who chairs the Senate Constitution Committee, said on Monday that lower courts with “an agenda” have developed a track record of allowing parole release on technicalities. Hill believes the letter of the law must be clarified and amended to prevent future releases in cases similar to Williams.
“I think we have to be very specific and say that it’s the discretion of the parole board whether or not a new misdemeanor crime is a revokable offense because it needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis,” Hill said, noting that DUI, domestic violence, assault, and some theft offenses are considered misdemeanors on the first offense. “I think those things should be revocable offenses and the parole board should have the final say on who’s out and who’s not allowed to be.”
Another factor informing Hill’s opinion that the state’s parole and probation statute needs to be restructured is the neglect of victims’ families. Cases such as Williams have highlighted a trend of families finding out late in the process, or even after the process, of the person who victimized their loved ones being considered for parole.
Of the changes Williams suggested and plans to present in the upcoming legislative session are alterations to laws surrounding misdemeanor crimes, new abilities for the parole board, and even moving the parole board under a different state agency. She cited a lack of transparency of the parole board under the Department of Corrections. For previous stories, the parole board has also refused to comment on or clarify information to SuperTalk Mississippi News.
“Both the parole and probation statutes got muddied up under criminal justice reform. I don’t think most Mississippians think that somebody ought to be able to be arrested for three misdemeanor new crimes,” Hill expounded. “The first thing we need to do is look at public safety. Give the parole board authority to revoke for a new crime. If the lower courts are going to continue to say we can’t revoke for a misdemeanor crime, we have no choice but to clear up that statute. The second thing is the parole board needs to be moved out from under MDOC and put under the Department of Public Safety.”
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