The Mississippi Supreme Court should overturn an “astonishing” 12-year prison sentence given to an African American man who took a mobile phone into a jail cell when he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, attorneys argued in court papers filed Thursday. The state’s high court upheld Willie Nash’s sentence Jan. 9. It also says Nash received a longer sentence for possessing a cellphone in jail than Mississippi courts would impose for second-degree arson or poisoning someone with the intent to kill.
