Donald Ratcliff
Donald Beryl Ratcliff, 47, of Ocean Springs, was held at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Mississippi when he was critically injured in an assault by another person housed there on April 26, 2021. He was taken to a hospital in Mobile, Alabama, and died there in early May 2021. The district attorney's office said blunt force head trauma from the assault caused his death, and a man charged in the case was sentenced in January 2023 to 20 years for manslaughter. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and sheriff's investigators looked into the death.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody. The district attorney's office said blunt force head trauma from an assault by another inmate caused his death, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigated.
Reported by: district attorney's office; Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (outside investigators); Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell (the agency that held him).