The Hon. Kent McDaniel (Ret.) served as a judge for the Rankin County Court in Mississippi. McDaniel was appointed to the bench by former Governor Kirk Fordice on September 1, 1997. He retired on September 30, 2021.
Prior to his appointment, McDaniel was an attorney in private practice. He supplemented his practice with service as the first assistant United States attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi (1989 to 1995) and the judge for the Flowood Municipal Court (1995 to 1997).
McDaniel earned a bachelor’s degree from Belhaven College (1969) and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. He spent the next several years working as an undercover agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, a deputy commissioner for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, and a director of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy before completing a J.D., and later an LL.D. (2013), at Mississippi College School of Law.
His memberships have included the Conference of County Court Judges and the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance.
McDaniel was raised in Sandersville, Mississippi. He is a veteran of the 20th Special Forces Group (1968 to 1973) and the 11th MP Battalion, MANG (1973 to 1978), of the Mississippi Army National Guard. McDaniel and his wife, JoAnn, have two sons. When not presiding over legal proceedings, he enjoys singing with the Mississippi Chorus and the Lakeside Presbyterian Church.