James M. Petro (born October 25, 1948) is an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party who served as the Attorney General of Ohio.

A Brooklyn High School graduate, he attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

As Ohio's Attorney General he successfully defended the law banning late term abortions in the state.

Petro became the first attorney general in the country to intervene in a case spearheaded by the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that pioneered the use of DNA testing to prove wrongful conviction.

The case exonerated Clarence Elkins, a family man with no prior criminal record who had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his mother-in-law.

[citation needed] Petro was appointed chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents in March 2011 by Governor John Kasich.