Thomas Edward Payne | Attorney

Tom Payne began his full time career in public service more than thirty years ago when he was appointed a Deputy Sheriff with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department. At that time, the youngest deputy assigned to Patrol duty, Tom quickly learned the realities of law enforcement in the streets. During his tenure as a patrol deputy, Tom pursued and completed his Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from U.S.M., Gulf Coast.

In 1980, Tom was appointed an Agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and served in an undercover capacity for two and half years. Tom left the Bureau of Narcotics to serve as an Investigator for then District Attorney, Mike Moore. When Mike Moore became Attorney General, Tom headed the Attorney General's transition team. In January of 1988, he was appointed the first Director of the newly created Public Advocacy Division of the State Attorney General's office.

In July of 1988, Tom transferred from the Attorney General's Public Advocacy Division to fill the position of Chief Counsel with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. Tom served in this position until September 1989, when he accepted an appointment as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. Tom was then able to return to the coast being assigned to the criminal division in the Biloxi regional office.

As a Federal Prosecutor Tom successfully prosecuted a diverse range of criminal cases including Arson for profit, Organized Crime and Drug Task force, violent crimes and major fraud cases. He also handled numerous appeal cases on behalf of the Government, writing briefs for each case and on several occasions appearing before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana. Having distinguished himself among his peers he received the Special Achievement award from the Attorney General of the United States.

Tom left his position at the United States Attorneys office when he was selected to coordinate the Criminal Justice program at all coast campuses for the University of Southern Mississippi. In 2002, Dr. Payne was awarded Tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. Dr. Payne has lectured, conducted research and written extensively in areas relating to civil liberties and criminal justice. Including but not limited to Constitutional law, Search and Seizure, law enforcement training, private security, criminal prosecution and workplace violence. In June 2007, Dr. Payne was invited to participate in a series of lectures at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Payne presented his national research on Police Discourtesy and Youth Violence.

As part of his service duties at the University, Dr. Payne served for several years as a municipal court Judge. Beginning in November 2001, Dr. Payne was appointed the Senior Municipal Court Judge for the City of Gulfport; Ms. Dr. Payne was the administrative head of the largest municipal court in the State of Mississippi. Judge Payne oversaw three pro tempore judges and a staff of thirty-seven with an annual budget of 1.5 million dollars. He oversaw the transformation of a traditional city court model of "crime control" to a "due process" model in the everyday interaction with the citizen. While Judge Payne was Senior Judge, the Municipal Court of Gulfport held the distinction of being the first court in Harrison County to institute metal detectors and advanced court room security. The court was recognized as the first municipal court in the State of Mississippi to employ a victim witness advocate and the first municipal court, in the nation, to employ electronic monitoring in domestic violence cases. Dr. Payne later received a federal grant to operate a youth development/crime prevention program that he created in response to a need to serve the more than four hundred 16-21 year olds that came through the municipal court every year. Since then the Citizenship and Justice Academy (CJA) has received additional federal grants totally nearly half a million dollars and has been recognized throughout the United States and Europe as a model youth crime prevention program. Dr. Payne left the court, in March 2004, when he was appointed the Director of the Attorney General’s Southern Division office on the Gulf Coast. This was a grant designed to bring the Attorney General’s office on our coast campus to allow our criminal justice students the opportunity to work with a professional criminal justice agency while at the same time providing the Attorney General with economical space and manpower. During this same period Dr. Payne was appointed Interim Chair of the Criminal Justice Department. He held the Chair position during a very historic time for the department. During his tenure as Chair he oversaw the creation of the Forensic Science department and the transition from the Criminal Justice Department to the Administration of Justice Department. This transition required the arduous task of IHL approval and then finally re-branding of all departmental marketing materials and education programs, both internally and externally, to the students and University customers. While interim Chair Dr. Payne maintained his duties on the coast campus. Dr Payne also operates a part time private law practice, Tom Payne & Associates PLLC, and has been a practicing Attorney for twenty- one years.

Dr. Payne holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in Adult Education with an emphasis in Criminal Justice and a Jurist Doctorate in Law from the University of Mississippi and he received special certification in the security field (C.P.P.). Married to Diane Maguire Payne for twenty-seven years, Tom and Diane are the parents of three girls ages 24, 20 and 17, Son-in-law Sam and grandson, Nicholas.

Dissertation Committee Service

Chair/Major Professor: Six doctoral students
Bransford, Scott D: Prospectus proposal stage 08-09
Rayner, Jerimiah: Pre-prospectus proposal stage 08-09
Knight, Eugene: Writing final dissertation. 09-
Morrison, Stephen L.: Completed, Graduating January 2008
Starita, Cynthia: Completed, Graduating May 2008
Wiggington, Michael : Completed, Graduating January 2008

Doctoral Committee Member Seven doctoral students
Allen, Julian: Completed graduated 2003
Bertram, Dean James: Defended 2009
Brown, Cynthia Ann: Completed graduated 2004
Carrol, Nina: Writing proposal stage
Tiefenworth, Thomas: Completed graduating January 2008
Stewart, Bruce: Completed  2006
Ring, Robyn : Completed graduated 2007

Thesis Committee Member  Three graduate students

Cox, Kim: Completed graduated 2007  (reverted to non-thesis route)
Hanser, Rachel: Writing
Rogers, Angela : Completed graduated 2007