District Attorney General Jerry Woodall retires after 43 years
JACKSON, Tenn. — After 43 years of working for the FBI, as a private attorney and as district attorney general, Jerry Woodall is retiring.
“Well he has done all these years what he loves doing,” Ann Woodall, Jerry Woodall’s wife, said. “He’s always for law enforcement. He’s always the guy wearing the white hat.”
Friends, family and colleagues came together Friday to celebrate Jerry Woodall. He got his start in law enforcement working for the FBI.
“It was the best opportunity for me to do something I had never done before and go places I had never been before,” District Attorney General Jerry Woodall said.
Once Woodall left the FBI, he went into private practice in Memphis and then became an assistant attorney general in Jackson before becoming district attorney general. He says that over the past four decades he’s seen the hurt that victim’s families can go through and that there’s no “I” in law enforcement.
“Not one person can get the job done,” Woodall said. “It takes everyone working together, and I have enjoyed that team concept.”
Woodall also has some tips for anyone wanting to get into law enforcement or wanting to become an attorney.
“Approach everything with intensity, with accuracy and with completeness,” Woodall said.
No matter what role Woodall has been in over the past four decades, he says he has loved every minute of it.
“It’s gone by in a hurry, but I would’ve hated to have missed it,” Woodall said.
His last day will be July 31. He and his wife plan to move to Nashville to be closer to family.
