Jim Hood | |
|---|---|
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| 39thAttorney General of Mississippi | |
| In office January 8, 2004 – January 14, 2020 | |
| Governor | Haley Barbour Phil Bryant |
| Preceded by | Mike Moore |
| Succeeded by | Lynn Fitch |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Matthew Hood (1962-05-15)May 15, 1962 (age 63) New Houlka, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Debra Hood |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Mississippi (BA,JD) |
James Matthew Hood (born May 15, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 39thattorney general of Mississippi from 2004 to 2020.
Hood was first elected Attorney General in 2003, defeatingRepublican Scott Newton. A formerdistrict attorney, Hood succeeded fellow DemocratMike Moore. Hood announced on October 3, 2018, that he would run forGovernor of Mississippi in 2019; he easily won the Democratic primary on August 6, 2019 but lost thegeneral election to then-Lieutenant GovernorTate Reeves on November 5, 2019, which was Hood's first statewide loss. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Mississippi since Hood won his final term as Attorney General in 2015. He is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Mississippi, and from 2008 to 2020 was the only one to do so.
Since leaving office, Hood has joined the national law firm Weisbrod Matteis & Copley, establishing the firm's first Mississippi-based office inHouston, Mississippi.[1] He also sits on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center.[2]
Hood is the son of James Hood, Jr.[3] Hood is a native ofNew Houlka inChickasaw County in northeastern Mississippi.
In 1988, Hood received hisJ.D. degree from theUniversity of Mississippi atOxford. As an undergraduate, he was a member ofPi Kappa Alpha.
Hood was sworn-in as attorney general on January 8, 2004.[4]
In 2004, Hood prosecuted Jeremy Martin, a teacher from Tupelo, Mississippi and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives, who was accused of a misdemeanor campaign finance violation. John Helmert, Hood's opposing counsel, called the prosecution of Martin a "political witch hunt". According to theSun Herald, "it is rare for the state's attorney general to prosecute allegedcampaign finance violations."[5] The case was dismissed after the defendant paid a $300 fine.[6]
In 2005, Hood prosecuted formerKlansmanEdgar Ray Killen for orchestrating the 1964 murders ofAndrew Goodman,Michael Schwerner, andJames Chaney inPhiladelphia, Mississippi duringFreedom Summer.
Hood has been active in the legal aspects of the recovery of Mississippi afterHurricane Katrina. Shortly after Katrina, Hood partnered with Mississippi plaintiff attorneyRichard "Dickie" Scruggs, a brother-in-law of formerU.S. senatorTrent Lott, in filing suit against numerous high-profile insurance companies. Hood's leadership has been praised by some as allowing homeowners a better opportunity for recovery than they experienced in neighboringLouisiana,[7] but Scruggs and Hood have also been criticized for over-zealously prosecuting insurance companies and because Scruggs helped convey confidential documents, which Hood used in a criminal probe, supposedly to pressureState Farm Insurance into settlement.[8] Hood was reelected on November 6, 2007 and again for a third term on November 8, 2011. On November 3, 2015, Hood wasreelected to a fourth term.
In 2008, JudgeWilliam Acker criticized Hood in a judicial opinion for his role in helping Scruggs commitcivil contempt.[9] Scruggs was later convicted in federal court of crimes committed during the post-Katrina litigation.[10] The saga is recounted in the 2009 book,Kings of Tort.[11]
As a prosecutor, Hood has tried more than 100 jury cases while serving as assistant state attorney general and asChickasaw Countydistrict attorney (D.A.). He has successfully prosecuted several historic cases, including winning the conviction of Killen. As D.A., he successfully prosecuted death penalty cases, including one in which he originally won a conviction, and later, as Attorney General (A.G.), argued and won an appeal of the case before the United States Supreme Court. As A.G., Hood established avulnerable adults unit, adomestic violence unit, anidentity theft unit, and a crime prevention and victims services division. He has launched initiatives to preventworkplace andschool violence, andstalking and domestic assault. Hood has developed and distributed numerous publications to assist and educate both consumers and other public service entities in areas such ascyber crime,consumer protection, domestic violence, victims' assistance, election, and government law.[12]
Hood has been criticized for his support for the controversial bite mark technique[13][14][15] and more generally for his opposition to reform of the Mississippi death investigation system and critical evaluation of questionable forensic techniques.[16]
On his last day as governor in 2012,Haley Barbour granted 208 pardons, clemency or early release for people convicted of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery. Barbour's actions included 19 people convicted of murder.[17] Pardons by governors are not uncommon; the issue in this case is the number of pardons compared to former governors. Gov.Ronnie Musgrove, whom Barbour succeeded as governor, issued only one pardon, for a man convicted of marijuana possession; Gov.Kirk Fordice, who preceded Musgrove, issued two full pardons for convicted murderers.[18]In his role as attorney general, Hood argued Section 124 of theMississippi Constitution says any inmate seeking a pardon must publish their intentions 30 days in a newspaper in or near the county where the person was convicted and on January 11, a Mississippi judge temporarily blocked the release of the 21 inmates who had been given pardons or medical release.[19]
In May 2017, twelve years afterHurricane Katrina, Hood filed lawsuits againstLiberty Mutual Insurance andSafeco Insurance claiming that the companies failed to make adequate payments for the victims of Katrina.[20]
Hurricane Katrina occurred in August 2005 and caused $125 billion in property damage within Mississippi.[20]
The lawsuits claim that the insurance companies "undervalued claims for Katrina winded damages to minimize payments and to foist the financial burden onto the state when adjusting homeowners' insurance claims in the wake of the hurricane." Part of the complaint read, "Liberty Mutual essentially converted a program designed to help Mississippians recovering from Katrina into a subsidy for itself."[20]
In 2017, Hood filed lawsuits against a number of pharmaceutical companies. In the lawsuits, Hood alleged that the companies were engaging in an unlawful scheme to "force the state to pay for drugs that were not eligible forMedicaid reimbursement." Overall, Hood filed six separate lawsuits against the 18 defendant companies.[21]
Among other things, the lawsuits claimed that the companies made the state of Mississippi pay for drugs that had not received approval by the FDA. According toLegal NewsLine, "Hood contends the companies' scheme involves false representations, made by the defendants to the state, that theirNational Drug Codes, or NDCs, are FDA approved and eligible for Medicaid reimbursement."[21]
Hood said that the allegedly fraudulent marketing of drugs by the defendant companies resulted in an increased market share and profits for the companies while "essentially leaving the state in a lurch."[21]
On February 8, 2017, Hood announced he had filed civil cases against numerous corporations and individuals who had allegedly engaged in corrupt contracts with theMississippi Department of Corrections and its former commissionerChris Epps, seeking damages and punitive damages. He stated, "The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct." He continued, "These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state's losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state. We are also seeking punitive damages to punish these conspirators and to deter those who might consider giving or receiving kickbacks in the future." Besides Teresa Malone and Carl Reddix, who had been indicted by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, the civil case defendants included previously uncharged Michael Reddix; Utah'sManagement & Training Corporation; Florida'sGEO Group, Inc.;Cornell Companies, Inc.;Wexford Health Sources, Inc.; Drug Testing Corporation;Global Tel*Link Corporation andSentinel Offender Services, L.L.C. and others.[22] As he left office, Hood published a list of enumerated recoveries of $26,612,188.22 from complicit corporations.[23]The settlement amounts paid by these government contractors and the nature of services they provided were as follows:(1) Management & Training Corporation $5.18 million For-profit operator of correctional facilities(2) Cornell Companies, Inc. (GEO Group) $4.55 million For-profit operator of correctional facilities(3) Wexford Health Sources, Inc. $4.00 million Correctional health care provider(4) Keefe Commissary Network, LLC $3.10 million Commissary management services(5) C. N. W. Construction Company $3.10 million Construction(6) Global Tel*Link Corporation $2.50 million Inmate telephone communications(7) Branan Medical Corporation $2.00 million “Drugs-of-abuse” testing products(8) Sentinel Offender Services, LLC $1.30 million Offender tracking and monitoring provider(9) CGL Facility Management, LLC $750,000.00 Correctional maintenance services(10) AdminPros, LLC $32,188.22 Medicaid eligibility services(11) Guy E. “Butch” Evans $100,000.00 Insurance(12) Health Assurance, LLC ($0 due to bankruptcy) Correctional health care provider.[23]
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Working with the National Association of Attorneys General and entertainment lobby groups,[24] Hood has been pushing Google since 2013 to prevent use of the company's search engine to find drugs that require a prescription and copyright infringing content.[25] In December 2014, Google sued Hood in federal court, seeking to block a 79-pagesubpoena from the attorney general for violating First and Fourth Amendments rights.[26] The attorney general filed a motion to dismiss Google's motion on January 12, 2015. Both parties later agreed to freeze their motions and not enforce the subpoena until March 6, 2015.[27] A U.S. district judge granted Google's request for a preliminary injunction on March 2, 2015 putting on hold the pending subpoena[28] and ordering Attorney General Hood to hand over information requested by Google.[29] An appeals court has overturned the preliminary injunction on procedural grounds and allowed the subpoena, though it also criticized the broad nature Hood's original subpoena and the lack of any specific associated investigation.[30] In July 2016, Google and Hood agreed to dismiss their respective lawsuits and subpoenas.[31] The Attorney General and Google agreed to "endeavor to collaborate in addressing the harmful consequences of unlawful and/or dangerous online content".
On December 19, 2014, as a result of theSony Pictures Entertainment hack, emails were released that showed that Hood was urged by theMotion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to blameGoogle for acts of copyright infringement committed by numerous, multiple unrelated third parties[32] via the trade organisations theDigital Citizens Alliance andFairSearch.[33] The released emails also showed that threatening communications from Hood's office to Google were written by MPAA counsel.[34][35][36][37]
The subject sued Google for education privacy violations in 2017 and joined other Attorneys General investigating Facebook's policies on user privacy by sending aletter to preserve information that might be legal evidence in a future lawsuit.[38][39]
On October 3, 2018, Hood announced that he would be a candidate forGovernor of Mississippi in2019. According to theJackson Free Press, Hood, "known for his conservative positions on criminal justice... laid out a progressive policy agenda on taxes, health care, education and infrastructure" when he announced his candidacy.[40] Hood campaigned as a moderate Democrat according to anNPR reporter.[41] Mississippi'sThe Clarion Ledger reported that "Hood portrays himself" as amoderate.[42]
In announcing his candidacy, Hood called for Medicaid expansion, tuition-free community college, universal pre-school, and criticized corporate tax cuts implemented by Mississippi's Republican-controlled legislature.[43][40][44] According to Hood, the decision by Republicans not to accept Medicaid expansion had contributed to the closure of rural hospitals in Mississippi.[40] He has also campaigned based on what he describes as hisanti-abortion views and has highlighted his gun ownership.[45] Explaining hisanti-abortion position, he referred to his work defending Mississippi's ban, known as a "heartbeat" bill, on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.[46]
Hood won the Democratic primary with 68.78% of the vote.[47] He lost the general election to Republican nomineeTate Reeves, the incumbentlieutenant governor.[48] Reeves defeated Hood in the general election by a margin of 5.1%, making it the nearest a Democrat had come to winning a Mississippi gubernatorial election since 1999. Hood had managed the strongest performance by a Democrat since the2003 Mississippi gubernatorial election, when then-incumbent governorRonnie Musgrove took 45.81% of the vote as he lost reelection.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jim Hood | 548,046 | 62.69% | ||
| Republican | Scott Newton | 326,042 | 37.30% | ||
| Total votes | 874,088 | 100.00% | |||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jim Hood (incumbent) | 439,668 | 59.8% | ||
| Republican | Al Hopkins | 295,791 | 40.2% | ||
| Total votes | 735,459 | 100.0% | |||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jim Hood (incumbent) | 536,827 | 61.08% | ||
| Republican | Steve Simpson | 342,086 | 38.92% | ||
| Total votes | 878,913 | 100.00% | |||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jim Hood (incumbent) | 395,969 | 55.29% | |
| Republican | Mike Hurst | 320,192 | 44.71% | |
| Total votes | 716,161 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Tate Reeves | 459,396 | 51.91% | −14.47 | |
| Democratic | Jim Hood | 414,368 | 46.83% | +14.58% | |
| Independent | David Singletary | 8,522 | 0.96% | N/A | |
| Constitution | Bob Hickingbottom | 2,625 | 0.30% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 884,911 | 100% | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Mississippi 2004–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forAttorney General of Mississippi 2003,2007,2011,2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Robert Gray | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Mississippi 2019 | Succeeded by |