Judge Sue Bell Cobb is the first Executive Director of Redemption Earned, leading the pursuit of its mission and vision. She was the driving force behind the creation of the organization as a mechanism to proactively address obstacles within the justice system that continue to prevent worthy incarcerated adults from becoming productive citizens. Judge Cobb became the first female chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, serving from 2007-2011.

Judge Cobb began her judicial career when she was appointed as a judge in Conecuh County District Court as the youngest judge in the history of Alabama, where she served until 1995. Cobb took trial judge assignments all over Alabama, hearing cases in 40 of 67 counties over her career. In 1994, Cobb ran her first statewide race and was elected to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, where she spent two terms (1995-2007) and was the first woman elected to that position. During her tenure on the criminal appellate court, she focused on the safety of Alabama’s children, and joined with other child advocates in forming the Alabama Children First Foundation, which provides the only full-time lobbyist for children at the Alabama Legislature. She remains passionate about children’s issues and is active on the Children First board.

During her tenure as the head of the Unified Judicial System, Chief Justice Cobb focused on the court’s role in the overcrowding of Alabama adult and juvenile correctional facilities. She championed the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2008 which has reduced the number of juveniles in Department of Youth Systems by over two-thirds and allowed fo the reinvestment of those dollars in local and more-effective alternatives to lock-up. Juvenile crime has gone down. She made the creation of “courts of accountability”, such as model drug courts, a major priority, thus earning her the “Taking Drug Courts to Scale Award” by the NADCP for the greatest increase in drug courts in the nation. She advocated for the expansion of community corrections programs and sentencing reform.

Now, Chief Justice Cobb has turned her attention to the plight of the hundreds of “aged & infirmed” incarcerated adults in Alabama’s prisons, serving as the first executive director of Redemption Earned, Inc. She is convinced that assisting worthy, elderly incarcerated adults transition to nursing homes is the “right thing to do for all the right reasons”.

Judge Cobb is married to Bill Cobb, who has been an amazing partner in all of her reform efforts, and together they have three children and four grandchildren.