Bobby DeLaughter
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Robert "Bobby" Burt DeLaughter Sr. (born February 28, 1954, in Vicksburg, Mississippi) is an American politician, member of the Democratic Party, former state prosecutor and then Hinds County Circuit Judge.[1] He prosecuted and secured the conviction in 1994 of Byron De La Beckwith, charged with the murder of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Two earlier trials in Mississippi in 1964 had resulted in hung juries.[2]
Robert "Bobby" Burt DeLaughter Sr. was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on February 28, 1954. He was the first son of Barney Roy DeLaughter and Billie Newman (Burt) DeLaughter, who later had another son Mike. Bobby's father was a commercial artist for a newspaper. The family moved to Jackson when Bobby was very young, and DeLaughter grew up being part of the city's white middle class. He was nine on June 12, 1963, when Medgar Evers was killed.
DeLaughter first saw the law in action when his ninth-grade civics teacher took the class to watch a trial at the Hinds County courthouse. That day convinced DeLaughter he wanted to practice law. He graduated from Wingfield High School in Jackson. DeLaughter attended undergraduate college and law school at the University of Mississippi. He became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Marriage and family
During the summer of 1973, DeLaughter met Dixie Claire Townsend.[3] They married on November 16, 1973, and their first child, Bobby Burt, was born on December 5, 1978. They also had a daughter, Claire, and a second son, Drew, together.
Due to their opposing views and his commitment on the Evers case, which Bobby started investigating in 1989 for a new trial, his and Dixie's marriage was strained. They divorced on April 15, 1991, and DeLaughter gained custody of their three children.
Later DeLaughter met Peggy Lloyd, a nurse, whom he married. Also divorced, she had three sons from her first marriage: Jared, Joel, and JJ.
