JACKSON, Miss.—The Hinds County District Attorney’s Office resolved more felony cases in 2024 than it did in the previous year, a report released by the Hinds County District Attorney’s office says.
“It was a good year for justice in Hinds County in 2024,” Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who is currently awaiting a trial date on his own federal bribery charges, shared the news during a press conference inside the Hinds County Chancery Court Building on Feb. 12.
Last year, the Hinds County District Attorney’s office resolved 1,135 cases encompassing 1,794 individual felony counts, a 21% increase in felony count resolutions compared to 2023, the report says.
Felony counts can be resolved in a number of ways, including guilty pleas and verdicts. In 2024, the majority of those resolutions were guilty pleas, followed by pre-trial diversion programs (such as drug courts), the office’s 2024 Annual Report states.
Owens said on Feb. 12 that diverting people away from incarceration by allowing them to go into a pre-trial program has always been a priority of his. “If we have this responsibility to prosecute people, we have the responsibility to help them re-enter our society,” he said.
The 21% increase in individual felony count resolutions in 2024 was the highest that the office had recorded in his five-year tenure as District Attorney, he said. He won the seat in 2019 and took office in 2020.
The majority of those cases were homicides followed by property crimes, the annual report states. “In 2020, we talked about the backlog, the grand jury backlog. There no longer exists a grand jury backlog,” the district attorney said, explaining that his office had also increased its rate of getting cases to trial.
“The best practice in the country for (the time between when a) crime is committed to (when a) crime resolved is one year,” he explained. “Right now, we’re about 14 months on new cases and getting them resolved. Best practice will be a year and we’re committed to get there within the next year.”
Some lawmakers, including Mississippi House Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, used the case backlogs to justify the controversial House Bill 1020 legislation which established Jackson’s new municipal court system.
The Capitol Complex Improvement District Court opened on Jan. 27, 2025, with three judges.
Although the NAACP and a group of Jackson residents sued the state in 2023 attempting to stop the court’s formation, the civil rights group filed on Dec. 6, 2024, to end the litigation. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate accepted the organization’s request, dismissing the lawsuit.
Even with the progress he detailed, Owens said that the office could increase its numbers if county officials and state legislators provide it with additional resources, especially with the onslaught of additional cases since the Legislature expanded the Capitol Police’s jurisdiction.
“We’re uniquely positioned because we are the capital—we have the most cases brought to us,” he said. “What we’re asking the Legislature to do is give us permanent resources because we can’t keep up with the cases the Capitol (Police) brings.”
When asked whether his alleged involvement in the federal bribery case might make state lawmakers wary of giving the office additional resources, Owens said that “the DA’s office is bigger than one person.”
“This is not Jody Owen’s office. This is the office of the Hinds County District Attorney’s office,” he continued. “There will be another DA at some point in time after me and whoever she or he is needs to have an office that is fully resourced.”
