U.S. Supreme Court denies Mayfield family appeal in Cochran case

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the wrongful death case against Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler by the widow of a former Chris McDaniel senate supporter who killed himself in 2014 after being prosecuted by the city for his role in a nursing home videotaping scheme that backfired. 

The court denied certiorari on Tuesday, which means that fewer than four of the justices thought a review was warranted by the court. 

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2020 decision by Southern District Judge Carlton W. Reeves, who dismissed the case with prejudice. 

The family of the now-late Ridgeland Attorney Mark Mayfield said he killed himself after the city of Madison prosecuted him in retaliation for his role in an incident during the 2014 U.S. Senate race in which Republican challenger Chris McDaniel sought to unseat the now-late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.

During the 2014 U.S. Senate campaign, Mayfield, after communicating with fellow McDaniel supporters John Mary, Richard Sager and Clayton Kelly, agreed to help Kelly obtain a photo of Cochran’s infirmed wife Rose inside St. Catherine’s Village assisted living facility in Madison.

Mayfield’s mother was a resident at St. Catherine's Village and he was familiar with the facility and the location of Rose Cochran’s room.

“Mary, Sager and Kelly had a plan to claim that Senator Cochran was an adulterer,” the court case states. “They wanted to make a video showcasing how Cochran spent time with his longtime aide in Washington, D.C., instead of with his wife, Rose, a resident of the St. Catherine’s Village assisted living facility in Madison.”

The video featuring a photo of Rose Cochran that Kelly shot on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014, was later posted to YouTube and was met with condemnation by supporters of both McDaniel and Cochran, and Kelly pulled it within hours of posting it.