Sue Bell Cobb
Sue Bell Cobb is an American jurist and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, 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 Scholarship Key. Cobb attended the University of Alabama School of Law, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1981. In law school Cobb was a member of the Bench and Bar Honor Society, Farrah Law Society, and Moot Court Board.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 Alabama|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 intermediate appeals. Before 1995, she had served as a trial judge 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., 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.