Ellington

On March 12, 2010, Radley Balko, formerly of Reason Magazine, published an email from Hood to coroners and others urging them to get legislators to vote against H.B. 1456. The bill, signed March 19 by Gov. Haley Barbour, requires that anyone hired by a Mississippi county to do an autopsy be American Board of Pathology certified in forensic pathology. Hood's email stated, in part:

"This is an Innocence Project bill which threatens cases which involved Dr. Hayne. This bill has passed the Senate and is headed to the House of Representatives. Please contact your House Member and encourage him or her to defeat this bill. Our office is working diligently to stop this potentially harmful legislation." In my April 7, 2010, story "Hood Responds to Hayne Criticism," I reported the following after an interview with Hood:

On March 19, however, Hood stated that his e-mail opposing H.B. 1456 had no connection to Hayne, and that his office had not come out against the bill. "We weren't taking a position on whether it's a bad bill," Hood told the Jackson Free Press. ... "Look, I'm not trying to defend Dr. Hayne," he added. "It would be politically more convenient for me not to say anything about it, but when I'm asked, I'm going to tell the truth about what I've seen, and what the facts are, and I don't want it to look like I'm defending him. But at the same time, I'm trying to say, 'Look, we need to open the crime lab.' That's been our position; it hasn't been pro (Hayne) or con him. It doesn't have anything to do with what our position is."

... Little doubt exists that the attorney general is in favor of expanding the medical examiner's office and the state crime lab. Hood's office has researched other state's medical examiner offices, including Arkansas, which employs nine full-time medical examiners with a population slightly less than Mississippi. Late last year, Hood proposed legislation adding a $13 fee to traffic tickets to fund a similarly staffed office for the state.

"[W]hat we did was basically put together a package for legislators, and we handed it to them, saying, 'This is what we need for a medical examiners office. This will fix it,'" Hood said. The proposal passed the House and died in the Senate. Read story: http://www.jfp.ms/hayne