The Supreme Court of the United States on Monday declined to review the case of a Mississippi death row inmate convicted of killing a woman during an attempted rape. Stephen Elliot Powers, 56, was sentenced to death in December 2000 for the June 1998 killing and attempted rape of 27-year-old Elizabeth “Beth” Lafferty at her home in Hattiesburg.
Prosecutors said Lafferty was shot five times, including three shots fired at close range into the back of her head, one under her chin, and one in her temple, The Clarion Ledger reported.
In a petition filed in October 2025, Powers’ attorneys argued the state actively concealed exculpatory evidence in the case until 2023.
The petition said that after Powers began seeking that material, the state instructed a local agency and the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory not to provide him with any evidence.
Powers later filed a motion to compel production of the material, which was granted in part.
According to the petition, the newly produced evidence points to an alternate suspect with a close connection to the victim.
The filing said previously undisclosed documents identified Lafferty’s ex-boyfriend as the original and only suspect in the murder.
The petition also cited a witness who reported last seeing the victim with a thin white male, a description the defense said matched the ex-boyfriend and not Powers, who is Black.
After receiving the material, Powers filed a motion for relief with the Mississippi Supreme Court.
His attorneys said the state’s high court dismissed the petition without addressing whether the evidence had been suppressed or whether Powers was at fault for failing to raise the claim earlier.
In a response filed Dec. 22, 2025, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office argued the ex-boyfriend was not further investigated after Powers was identified as the last person seen with Lafferty alive, confessed to the killing, and led police to the murder weapon.
Powers has not denied killing Lafferty but has claimed the two struggled over the gun and that it discharged during the confrontation.
The state said the ex-boyfriend had an alibi at the time of the killing.
Prosecutors also argued that the reference to a second suspect appeared only in a patrol officer’s incident report and would not have changed the outcome of the trial.
“This case does not warrant further review,” the state wrote.
Lafferty’s parents, Mike and Diane Lafferty, previously told the Clarion Ledger they would never recover from their daughter’s death and would continue to seek justice and enforcement of the death sentence.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it is “very unlikely” the Supreme Court will overturn President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs, with a ruling possibly coming as soon as this week.
“I believe that it is very unlikely that the Supreme Court will overrule a president’s signature economic policy,” Bessent said during an appearance on Meet the Press. “They did not overrule Obamacare. I believe that the Supreme Court does not want to create chaos.”
Last month, the Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows a federal panel to recommend preventive services insurers must cover at no cost to patients, CNBC reported.
Bessent’s remarks came one day after Trump announced plans to impose a new round of tariffs on European goods until what he described as “a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
Trump did not specify which statute he is invoking, though the move mirrors prior “liberation day” tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
Trump said tariffs on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland will begin at 10 percent on Feb. 1 and rise to 25 percent on June 1.