A Hinds County judge has blocked the state attorney general’s attempt to permanently drop the manslaughter case against a former Capitol Police officer who admitted to killing a 25-year-old Jackson man during a traffic stop.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Faye Peterson ruled the attorney general’s office was showing a “bias” for law enforcement, despite its legal responsibility to prosecute the manslaughter case against the white former officer, Michael Lamar Rhinewalt, for firing the shot that killed Jaylen Lewis, a Black man. After a majority-Black jury deadlocked on whether to convict Rhinewalt at trial last month, the new ruling leaves open the possibility that Rhinewalt could face a second trial and up to 20 years in prison under a future attorney general, once current Republican officeholder Lynn Fitch’s term is up in 2028.

September’s manslaughter trial against Rhinewalt and the other former officer who admitted to shooting at Lewis in self defense, Steven Frederick Jr., marked the first criminal trial…