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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton appeared weak at a Dec. 30 press conference outlining the mayor’s stance on fighting crime. Credit: Adam Lynch

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton was admitted to St. Dominic Hospital Saturday night, City Information Director Goldia Revies told WLBT. Melton, who is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 2 on federal civil rights charges, has congestive heart failure and is in the end stage of cardiomyopathy. Melton’s trial was supposed to begin this week, but Judge Dan Jordan granted Melton a continuance last week, finding he was not fit to stand trial, yet. Revies would not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding Melton entering the hospital. Reached Monday for coment, Melton attorney John Reeves said he did not know if the mayor had been released.

“Let us come together and hope and pray for the mayor’s full and speedy recovery,” Reeves said. “Regardless of what you may think of the mayor, we should all hope for his good health.”

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.