New Mississippi laws take effect July 1, including juvenile court changes, death penalty for sexual battery
Now, that date is here.
Laws passed in the 2026 legislative session will take effect starting Wednesday.
Sen. Joey Filligane says a few of the laws enforce stricter penalties.
“The hope is that once they know the severe punishments that can be meted out by the judicial system and the circuit judges and the like, they will choose not to do these types of things,” Fillingane said.
Two major changes to the justice system will go into effect.
Juvenile offenders who commit violent crimes with a deadly weapon will skip the youth court system. Those cases will now go straight to circuit court, otherwise known as adult court.
These cases can still be sent back to the youth court. It is at the discretion of a Circuit Court judge and the local district attorney’s office.
The hope is that this will also reduce youth crime and gang-related crimes involving juveniles.
“In the past, the thought by some has been that they were being taken advantage of by older members of the gangs by being used as sort of the mules to go and do the dirty work, thinking that they wouldn’t be penalized as severely as the older members of the group would have been. But now we’re taking that distinction away in the law,” Fillingane said.
A separate law creates a new crime: capital sexual battery.
If convicted, offenders could be sentenced to death for severely damaging a child’s sexual organs. According to the law, this applies if the child is 12 years old or younger.
“It is such a heinous crime that we don’t care that that child was not killed, that you have permanently scarred that child for life,” Fillingane said. “And the consequence of that under the new law would be a capital punishment option.”
Fillingane says these two laws are sending a strong message:
“You do the crime, prepare to do harsher time,” he said. “We want people to know that we need to protect our communities, we need to protect our children in particular, and we are intent on doing that in the Mississippi legislature.”
More than 100 laws will go into effect.
Source: wdam.com, Raven Little, July 1, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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