
A Mississippi juror, Ashley Parnell, who sat on the manslaughter trial of Carmon Brannan, a prison nurse, is now being sued for defamation by the nurse. The civil suit arises from comments that Ms. Parnell made on Facebook about the case. Approximately six months prior to the start of trial, the local newspaper ran a story about the nurse withdrawing her guilty plea. This apparently upset Ms. Parnell who took to Facebook to voice her displeasure.
“If she would have done her job, Joel would still be alive today!! So yes, she is guilty of murder. He was her responsibility as long as he was in jail and was responsible for her checking his sugar and administering his medication and bc (because) she ... (failed) to do her job he died. So hell yeah, she’s GUILTY. It doesn’t take a genius to see this!!!”
The case went to trial some 6 months after the Facebook post in January and resulted in a 11-1 verdict. Surprisingly, Ms. Parnell, despite making the Facebook post, was allowed to sit as a juror. After the hung jury, Ms. Brannan brought her civil suit claiming among other things that because of the post by Ms. Parnell she suffers from emotional distress, headaches, anxiety and sleepless nights. Ms. Brannan also claims that the post damaged her personal and professional reputation.
Ms. Brannan is scheduled for retrial on the manslaughter charges in July in a different county based on the defendant's change of venue request.