[6] In 2005, Hood prosecuted former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for orchestrating the 1964 murders of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney in Philadelphia, Mississippi during Freedom Summer.

In 2008, Judge William Acker criticized Hood in a judicial opinion for his role in helping Scruggs commit civil contempt.

[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.

Ronnie Musgrove, whom Barbour succeeded as governor, issued only one pardon, for a man convicted of marijuana possession; Gov.

Part of the complaint read, "Liberty Mutual essentially converted a program designed to help Mississippians recovering from Katrina into a subsidy for itself.

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 for Medicaid reimbursement."

[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 to Legal NewsLine, "Hood contends the companies' scheme involves false representations, made by the defendants to the state, that their National Drug Codes, or NDCs, are FDA approved and eligible for Medicaid reimbursement.

[23] 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-page subpoena from the attorney general for violating First and Fourth Amendments rights.

[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 the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, emails were released that showed that Hood was urged by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to blame Google for acts of copyright infringement committed by numerous, multiple unrelated third parties[32] via the trade organisations the Digital Citizens Alliance and FairSearch.

According to the Jackson 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.

[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.

[45] Explaining his anti-abortion position, he referred to his work defending Mississippi's ban, known as a "heartbeat" bill, on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.

Hood had managed the strongest performance by a Democrat since the 2003 Mississippi gubernatorial election, when then-incumbent governor Ronnie Musgrove took 45.81% of the vote as he lost reelection.