Sue Bell Cobb (born March 1, 1956) is an
American jurist and former Chief Justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...
, the first woman to hold that office in Alabama's history. In 2018 she unsuccessfully ran for governor of Alabama losing in the primary to Tuscaloosa mayor
Walt Maddox receiving 30 percent of the vote compared to his 52 percent.
Early life and career
Cobb was born in
Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated from Sparta Academy and the
University of Alabama with a
degree in history. She received the
Phi Alpha Theta
Phi Alpha Theta () is an American honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history.
It has more than 400,000 members, with new members numbering about 9,000 a year through its 970 chapters.
Founding
Phi Alpha The ...
Scholarship Key. Cobb attended the
University of Alabama School of Law, graduating with a
J.D. in 1981. In law school Cobb was a member of the Bench and Bar Honor Society, Farrah Law Society, and Moot Court Board. Cobb is married to William J. Cobb, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs of Bell South (retired). They have three children and four grandchildren.
Cobb was appointed as a judge of
Conecuh County District Court immediately after being
admitted to the bar. Formerly one of the state's youngest judges, she was elected to the district court in 1982 and re-elected in 1988.
As a trial judge, Cobb took assignments from about 40
counties. In 1997, Cobb was appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to serve as the Alternate Chief Judge of the Court of the Judiciary.
In 2004, Cobb served as an appellate court judge during the appeals case of
:Anthony Ray Hinton for his 1985 murder conviction. Though Hinton's 2004 appeal was denied at the time, Cobb was one of the presiding judges that thought he deserved a new trial. Cobb noted "I had never been so convinced of someone’s innocence than I had in Mr. Hinton’s case after reviewing all of the evidence", elaborating that "there were no fingerprints. ... When you looked at the ballistics expert that the defense had hired, he was woefully inadequate." Hinton's conviction was eventually overturned and he was freed after 30 years in prison on April 3, 2015.
Chief Justice
Campaign and election
Cobb served as Alabama's Chief Justice from 2007 until her resignation in August 2011. She was the first woman elected to this post and had previously served from 1995 to 2007 as a judge on the
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, the
state court for
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
intermediate appeals. Before 1995, she had served as a
trial judge
A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...
in state district court for many years.
Cobb, a
Democrat, was the only member of her party to serve on the Alabama Supreme Court at that time. Elected in 2006, she unseated Judge
Drayton Nabers Jr.
Drayton Nabers Jr. (born December 2, 1940) is an American lawyer and former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court in 2003 by Governor Bob Riley following Chief Justice Roy Moore's removal as a result of his re ...
, a
Republican who in 2003 had succeeded Justice
Roy Moore after Moore had been removed from the bench regarding his role in the display of the
Ten Commandments in the courthouse. The race achieved notoriety for its cost; including the primary, the candidates raised over $8.3 million.
[
]
Rulings
On November 2, The Alabama Supreme Court, in an 8–1 vote, struck down a 2003 circuit court ruling that ExxonMobil Corp owed the state $3.6 billion in punitive damages. All eight Republican associate justices agreed that evidence in the case did not support a finding of fraud. Democratic Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb dissented. She maintains that corporate greed should not outweigh the interests of the people of Alabama.
Accomplishments
Juvenile justice reform
Cobb was a critical champion and contributor to the passage of the 2008 Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2008. Following passage of the bill, Juvenile crime decreased and number of imprisoned children was reduced by more than 60%.
Retirement
Cobb announced her intention to retire from office on June 30, 2011, to devote more time to her family. Cobb noted that she had also been wary of "the cost of running for office while maintaining judicial objectivity". She denied that her decision to step down was connected with a potential bid for Governor of Alabama
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
in the 2014 election, She considered it, but ultimately decided against running. After stepping down, she became "a national advocate for changing how judges are selected", saying on her race against Nabers (said to be the second most expensive judicial race in American history), "Everything we did was legal and ethical, but that didn't mean it was right". In 2015, in an op-ed piece for '' Politico'', she said she was ashamed of the amount of money she had to raise to win the election.[
]
Candidate for Governor
On June 14, 2017, Cobb announced her candidacy for governor, declaring "I simply cannot stand by and watch as one more community hospital closes its doors. I cannot be still as so many bad decisions that affect us all continue to be made. As the head of Alabama’s judicial branch, and in the face of significant obstacles, I was able to work with amazing court leaders and state employees to make vast improvements in the lives of others. If given the opportunity, I would be honored to put my experience and skill set to work in the executive branch. I promise, I will work and I will not stop until there is light again on Alabama’s horizon."
See also
*List of female state supreme court justices Female state supreme court justices
First female justices
Below is a list of the names of the first woman to sit on the highest court of their respective states in the United States.
The first state with a female justice was Ohio; Florence E. ...
References
External links
*
Campaign Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Sue Bell
1956 births
Alabama Democrats
American women judges
Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama
Living people
Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky
Kentucky women in politics
Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States
21st-century American women
21st-century American women judges
21st-century American judges