Could the outcome have been different?
A statewide group tasked with reviewing domestic violence homicides and other related deaths will begin to look at missed opportunities to offer resources and intervention to change future outcomes.
With a better picture of what help victims and perpetrators had access to before a death, Mississippi’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team puts the state in a position to make systemic changes around its response to domestic violence, said team member Stacey Riley.
“This will help us as a state and give the movement to find what the changes are and how to make them happen,” said Riley, CEO of the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence. “It’s not just about ‘We have to make it better.’”
She is among those appointed to the committee established during the legislative session under the Department of Public Safety. Its 13 members include domestic violence service providers, advocates, law enforcement and prosecutors.
Oxford Police Chief Jeff McCutchen, another committee member, said the group can help learn how to prevent domestic violence deaths and other related crimes.
“How do we keep this from being a problem that repeats?” he asked.
Choosing what cases to review will be up to the committee, and the group has a number of domestic violence deaths to choose from.
Between 2020 and 2024, Mississippi Today reviewed local news stories, police reports, court records and other public information and found that at least 300 people died in domestic violence incidents. This number includes victims, abusers, children, law enforcement and others.
At least 70 domestic violence incidents occurred across the state in 2025, resulting in at least 44 deaths and 48 injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That number is likely higher when other forms of domestic violence, such as beatings, strangulation and stabbings, are factored in and law enforcement investigations indicate that a case is domestic violence related.
The work of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team is years in the making.
In 2024, the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence supported a bill to establish the committee, but it did not make it out of committee.
The next year, the coalition, along with advocates and some who lost family members to domestic violence, spoke in support of a pair of bills to establish the review committee. One version, Senate Bill 2886, became law in July.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Joslin Napier in 2022, held a framed photo of her as Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill into law.
“(The review team) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said after the bill signing. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell selected four initial members before the law went into effect in July, said Bailey Martin Holloway, a spokesperson for the department. From there, the members elected a chair and vice chair and additional team members.
The committee is expected to meet quarterly, Holloway said. The group’s first tasks will be to set up administrative procedures and processes, which can include how the committee will receive cases and how to obtain court, medical and other records to review.
Riley hopes the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative can train the committee about methods, procedures and policies to review domestic violence cases.
Members of the review team are:
Allen McDaniel, Tindell’s chief of staff, committee chair. Luis Montgomery, public policy and justice strategist for the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, committee vice chair. He lobbied for the bill that established the committee. Anna Brumfield, special assistant attorney general. She trains law enforcement officers about domestic abuse protection orders and how to use the AG’s Domestic Violence Reporting System and Protection Order Registry. Kassie Coleman, district attorney for Clarke, Kemper, Lauderdale and Wayne counties. She has prosecuted crimes against women and children and was appointed as a member of the Commission for the Study of Domestic Abuse Proceedings. Debra Mitchell, a medical social worker. Stacey Riley, CEO of the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence. Tiffany Crawford, sexual assault prevention and response program manager for the Mississippi National Guard. Lanisha Bell, project director for the Tribal Financial Management Center with the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime. Michael Harper, Leake County deputy coroner. Shella Cage-Head, community advocate. Jeff McCutchen, Oxford police chief. His department established a victim’s service unit in 2021 to focus on crimes against people, including domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and harassment. Sholatta Sharp, special projects coordinator for the Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She is a certified sexual assault nurse examiner and trains others to work as examiners. Trey Spillman, county prosecutor for Rankin County.Hence then, the article about group aims to end domestic violence deaths was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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