Sept. 28, 2011

Brad Oberhousen, Democratic candidate for Mississippi House of Representatives in Hinds County's District 73, is the kind of guy you could meet and easily have a three-hour conversation with. He is easy going, agreeable and is slow to make campaign promises. Oberhousen, 33, is an attorney and owner of the Oberhousen Law Firm in Jackson. The Terry resident earned his bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University in 2000 and his law degree from Mississippi College in 2002.

The candidates for the District 73 race are still a bit up in the air. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Gay Polk, filed an election challenge last month with the Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee after reports surfaced that voters received the wrong ballots in the district's split precincts. The Democratic Committee ruled in Oberhousen's favor, and Polk has since filed a suit against the committee in Hinds County Circuit Court. For now, Oberhousen is the Democratic candidate and faces incumbent Republican Jim Ellington in the Nov. 8 elections. District 73 includes Terry, Byram, Raymond and Wynndale.

Why do you want to be elected?
I have lived in that part of Hinds County all my life. I'm from Raymond. The leadership was been stagnant as far as economic development, the help that law enforcement gets and the schools. I want to try and help that and move it in a better direction.

What is your opinion of how the Hinds County Executive Committee handled the primary?
Overall, I think they did a thorough job. I'm not going to say it was a perfect job. They had a lot of eyes watching them at the time. They were under a lot of pressure from the sheriff's race and supervisor's race. I watched them counting the absentee and affidavit ballots, and everything I saw was done properly. ... The only thing that bothers me was that the certification was done, and there was still a lingering challenge by my opponent. But I've been told I'm the primary winner, and I will move forward to the Nov. 8 election.

What will be your priorities?
I want to maintain our justice system and keep it intact and our criminal-justice system.

What legislation would you introduce or sponsor?
One thing would be to protect the Public Employees Retirement system and keep it intact with state retirees.

Do you think future state hires should be entitled to the same benefits people have now?
I guess you have to look at it with the standpoint of what it is funding now, and what's coming in, and what can we do to go forward. It's just going to be a sticky situation to fix it from this point forward. But I don't think you can go back and change benefits for current retirees and people that are already in their state positions banking on their retirement.

Are there any other issues you would work for or against?
I really want to help the economic development in southern Hinds County. So we can help Byram, Terry and Raymond in generating the needs of the community as far as economic development--restaurants and that kind of stuff.

You represent Matthew Norwood who spent 12 years in prison after being wrongfully charged with an armed carjacking in Jackson. Tell me more about that.
He was 16 and ran through the justice system, interviewed by the FBI and ended up pleading guilty to the crime. He had some learning disabilities and didn't understand the process. In an effort to get him out of jail, his attorney gave him advice to plead guilty, and he was sentenced to a six-month regional inmate-discipline program--basically a boot camp for offenders. Five months into it he was kicked out of the program (for bad behavior).
After being kicked out his sentenced was revoked, and he came back before the judge, and that's when he was given a 15-year sentence for the crime he pled guilty to. He had served 12 years of that before the investigators of the current (Hinds County) DA's office found some discrepancies in some statements, and some other people had (confessed) to the crime he was sentenced to, and they released him, and that's how it came to us. We were able to get the conviction set vacated and we are pursuing the wrongful conviction for Mr. Norwood. We were denied that by a Hinds Circuit judge, and now it's on appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

What does this say about our state's criminal-justice system?
There are a large number of cases that go through a system of people who are not perfect and may not have the time to spend on every case. I don't think it's widespread; I don't think it's a high number. But it does happen. It's just a mistake that happened. ... But the only reason Norwood's lawyer advised him to plead guilty was to get out of jail. ... The system forced him into a corner, and he made a 16-year-old's decision.