Sentencing has once again been delayed for former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba connected to a federal bribery scandal.
Lumumba’s sentencing has been moved to Nov. 20, but he and his counsel will still have to appear in court on Nov. 5. That’s the date former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and former Jackson City Councilman Aaron Banks will be sentenced on related charges.
The former mayor was disbarred by the Mississippi Supreme Court in mid-October after pleading guilty to conspiracy in a public corruption scheme involving a bid for a downtown Jackson convention center hotel project. Lumumba, Owens, and Banks, along with former Jackson City Councilwoman Angelique Lee and businessman Sherik Marve Smith, are said to have given favorable consideration to the informants’ downtown convention center hotel project in exchange for bribes.
Instead of Jackson getting a new hotel, however, federal authorities exposed a broader string of public corruption through bribes, private planes, strip clubs, and yachts, court records assert. Lumumba, specifically, admitted to accepting $50,000 disguised as campaign contributions in connection with the scheme. He then lost his reelection bid in July 2025 to former state Sen. John Horhn.
The Mississippi Supreme Court disbarred Owens in July. Like Lumumba, the former district attorney voluntarily surrendered his legal license and said he had no plans to fight his disbarment.
Lumumba, Owens, and Banks each face up to five years in prison, fines of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.