Alice Martin, embattled U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, announced today that she will resign effective this Friday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance has been nominated to replace her and the Senate Judiciary Committee will likely vote on her acceptance this Thursday. Vance is very highly regarded in the Alabama legal community.
Martin has a high national profile for the Eric Rudolph case as well as public corruption cases including those involved in the two-year college scandal and former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Martin will leave a legacy that will be interpreted in two different ways. Some will see her as a successful prosecutor of public corruption cases. Others will see her as politically motivated and tainted with allegations of misconduct in several different cases. This community will likely remember her for her involvement in the Don Siegelman case.
While we must analyze the tenure of Alice Martin, I think the Joyce Vance story is extremely interesting. Her husband is Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Robert Vance Jr. whose father Robert Vance was killed by a bomb at his home and mother Helen was seriously injured.
Joe Mays Jr., partner of the now-named Bradley Arant Boult Cummings law firm, recalled Vance at Bradley Arant as "a smart and very bright young attorney who had a good work ethic."
"We were lucky to get her," Mays said.
Vance became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama in 1991.
She developed into "a tough prosecutor," Jones said, "but also a seasoned prosecutor."
She joined the early investigation after Eric Robert Rudolph set off a bomb at the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham in 1998, killing an off-duty police officer. She also helped investigate several church burnings across north Alabama.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney John Earnest worked with Vance for about 15 years and once was her supervisor.
She was an intense, tenacious prosecutor who became the office's go-to person when it came to explosives, he said. Her intimate knowledge of the technical aspects of making explosive devices was "jaw-dropping."
"That could have had something to do with her father-in-law's assassination," Earnest said. "There were older, more experienced people in the office, but I would go to her about explosives matters. She did it by talking to ATF agents and reading."
Vance joined the Appellate Division of the U.S. attorney's office in 2002 and is now division chief.
While the Alice Martin issue is not so clear, I think that Joyce Vance will be an effective replacement and a leader amongst the U.S. Attorneys. From my understanding, she is also intent on continuing the prosecution of corruption cases although I have faith that she will not misguided by political interests as was her predecessor.