The Attorney General of Alabama is an elected, constitutional officer of the State of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. The office of the Attorney General is located at the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

. Henry Hitchcock

Henry Hitchcock

Henry Hitchcock was the first Attorney General of Alabama, having been elected by the Alabama General Assembly in December 1819 in its initial session...

 was elected Alabama's first attorney general in 1819.

Duties

As is common in many states, the Attorney General is the chief lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 of the state. He is called upon as the chief defender of the laws of Alabama, the lawyer for state officials and represents the state in all matters brought before a court of law or tribunal. The Attorney General (AG) also provides advisory opinions to local and state governments when questions arise about the constitutionality of proposed laws and regulations. It is the task of the AG to represent the state when questions arise concerning various criminal sentences including the death penalty.

From time to time the AG may begin legal proceedings on behalf of the state or on behalf of consumers damaged by illegal or bad faith commercial transactions.

Organization

Eighteen divisions comprise the Attorney General's office including a Violent Crimes Division, a Public Corruption Division and Consumer Affairs Division.

List of Attorneys General of Alabama

#	Name	Took office	Left office	Party
1	Henry Hitchcock Henry Hitchcock Henry Hitchcock was the first Attorney General of Alabama, having been elected by the Alabama General Assembly in December 1819 in its initial session...	1819	1823
2	Thomas White	1823	1825
3	Constantine Perkins	1825	1832
4	Peter Martin	1832	1836
5	Alexander Meek	1836	1836
6	John D. Phelan	1836	1838
7	Lincoln Clark Lincoln Clark Lincoln Clark was a lawyer and one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district. His life began and ended in the same small town in western Massachusetts, but included service in every branch of Alabama state government, the U.S...	1838	1839
8	Matthew W. Lindsay	1839	1843
9	Thomas D. Clarke	1843	1847
10	William H. Martin	1847	1847
11	Marion A. Baldwin	1847	1865
12	John W. A. Sanford	1865	1868
13	Benjamin Gardner	1868	1870
14	John W. A. Sanford	1870	1872
15	Henry Tompkins	1878	1884
16	Thomas McClellan	1884	1889
17	William L. Martin	1889	1894
18	William C. Fitts	1894	1898
19	Charles G. Brown	1898	1903
20	Massey Wilson	1903	1907
21	Alexander M. Garber	1907	1911	Democrat
22	Robert Brickell	1911	1915	Democrat
23	William Logan Martin	1915	1918
24	F. Lloyd Tate	1918	1918
25	Emmet S. Thigpen	1918	1919
26	James Q. Smith	1919	1921	Democrat
27	Harwell G. Davis	1921	1927	Democrat
28	Charlie C. McCall	1927	1931
29	Thomas E. Knight Thomas E. Knight Thomas E. Knight, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 13th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 1935 to 1937, as well as 19th Attorney General of Alabama from 1931 to 1935....	1931	1935	Democrat
30	A. A. Carmichael	1935	1939
31	Thomas S. Lawson	1939	1942
32	William N. McQueen	1943	1945	Democrat
33	William N. McQueen	1945	1947	Democrat
34	A. A. Carmichael	1947	1951
35	S. I. Garrett	1951	1955
36	John Malcolm Patterson John Malcolm Patterson John Malcolm Patterson is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Alabama, from 1959 to 1963. Previously he served as State Attorney General ....	1955	1959	Democrat
37	MacDonald Gallion	1959	1963	Democrat
38	Richmond Flowers	1963	1967	Democrat
39	MacDonald Gallion	1967	1971	Democrat
40	William J. Baxley	1971	1979	Democrat
41	Charles A. Graddick	1979	1987	Democrat
42	Don Siegelman Don Siegelman Don Eugene Siegelman is an American Democratic Party politician who held numerous offices in Alabama. He was the 51st Governor of Alabama for one term from 1999 to 2003...	1987	1991	Democrat
43	Jimmy Evans	1991	1995	Democrat
44	Jeff Sessions Jeff Sessions Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III is the junior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected in 1996, Sessions is a member of the Republican Party...	1995	1997	Republican
45	Bill Pryor	1997	2004	Republican
46	Troy King Troy King Troy Robin King is the former attorney general of the state of Alabama, United States. He previously served as an assistant attorney general and a legal adviser to both Republican governors Bob Riley and Fob James. King was appointed by Governor Bob Riley in 2004, when William Pryor resigned to...	2004	2011	Republican
47	Luther Strange Luther Strange Luther Johnson Strange III is the 49th Attorney General of Alabama. Strange was a candidate for public office in Alabama during both the 2006 and 2010 elections. In 2006, Strange ran for Alabama Lt. Governor and defeated George Wallace, Jr. in the Republican primary. Strange lost the general...	2011	N/A	Republican

External links

• Alabama Attorney General
• Alabama Attorneys General from the State of Alabama