If 1st District U.S. Rep. Travis Childers were the judge, he would go to prison in place of former Booneville lawyer Joey Langston.
“I know his heart, and it is good,” wrote Childers, whose letter is among 320 sent to U.S. District Judge Michael Mills, who will be sentencing Langston next week. “I wish I could fix this situation. I would take his punishment if I could.”
Nearly all those who wrote letters praise Langston, who pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to a judicial corruption charge in a Hinds County lawsuit a federal grand jury in Oxford is investigating this week. He is slated to be sentenced on that charge at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Many described Langston as generous to a fault. “I suppose many will say that Joey somehow lost his way,” Childers wrote. “I disagree.
“No one in my forty-nine years in Prentiss County has had greater impact on so many people that I personally know than Joey Langston. He has been a friend to all and an enemy to none. His heart is bigger than our entire county. His generosity to the people of Prentiss County will probably never be exceeded in my lifetime; not only his generosity of his resources, but by his generous gift of love and kindness to all who were willing to accept it. He has been a friend to the poor just as the wealthy. He has treated everyone with the greatest respect. I can hardly believe this tragedy is happening to him and his family.
Magnolia Tribune
