Mississippi’s attorney general needs wiretap authority to enhance the office’s ability to investigate and prosecute criminals, whether they’re violent drug lords or suave and clever white-collar crooks.
The House last week amended a Senate bill to grant the authority after a separate bill died in committee earlier in the session. The Senate did not immediately accept the amendment, instead inviting negotiations with the House. The wiretap authority could face opposition in the Senate, especially from Republicans who criticize Hood for failure to prosecute white-collar crime among Hood’s political friends.
Legislators in both parties should rise above partisanship and give the attorney general’s office full investigative powers.
The issue is not Jim Hood or his so-far legal relationships with admitted federal felons Dickie Scruggs, Joey Langston and others involved in judicial bribery scandals.
NE MS Daily Journal
3/28/8
Magnolia Tribune
