About Jim Hood

Jim Hood was elected Attorney General of Mississippi on November 4, 2003. Jim Hood has made protecting Mississippi families his priority. His first term has been marked by substantial achievements in reducing crime by combating the manufacture of illegal drugs resulting in a 75% reduction in the number of methamphetamine labs, fighting sexual predators with a state-of-art Cybercrime Center that investigates and prosecutes internet crime, establishing a Domestic Violence Unit, launching a safe school initiative, and protecting Mississippi consumers and seniors from identity theft.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Jim Hood has sought to make the insurance industry pay the rightful claims of tens of thousands of Mississippians whose homes and businesses were destroyed by Katrina. And, Jim Hood righted an historic wrong by successfully prosecuting Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964.As attorney general, Jim Hood has fought for crime victims by working with the Legislature to move the Crime Victims Compensation Division to his office. Over last three years, this division of the Attorney General’s Office has provided over $3.5 million to crime victims to pay for funerals for murdered loved ones and other items that victims may need to rebuild their lives.

Prior to being elected attorney general, Jim Hood was the District Attorney for the Third Circuit Court District in North Mississippi.. For his efforts on behalf of victims’ rights, Hood’s office received the 2003 Justice Achievement Award from the Crime Victim’s Compensation Program. Before being elected District Attorney, for five years Hood served in the Attorney General’s Office as an Assistant Attorney General where he ran the Drug Asset Forfeiture Unit. His unit seized over $1 million from drug dealers, which was used by local law enforcement agencies to fund additional drug enforcement.

A graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law in December 1988, Jim Hood was educated in the public schools of Chickasaw County. He is a fifth generation Mississippian and avid outdoorsman and hunter. Jim and his wife, Debbie, have three children – Rebecca, 12 Matthew, 9, and Annabelle Leigh, 4.