Alice H. Martin
Northern District of Alabama
The Honorable Alice H. Martin has served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama since September 29, 2001. President Bush’s appointment made her the first female United States Attorney to serve the Northern District of Alabama.
Mrs. Martin served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee from 2003-2005. She currently serves on the subcommittees of Cyber Crime/Intellectual Property, Controlled Substances, and the Office of Management and Budget. Additionally, Ms. Martin serves on the working groups for Health Care Fraud and Methamphetamine.
As U.S. Attorney, Mrs. Martin serves as the district’s top federal law enforcement official. She manages a staff of more than 100 employees, including approximately 50 Assistant United States Attorneys, who handle civil litigation and criminal investigations and prosecutions involving public corruption, narcotics trafficking, violent crime, white collar fraud and other federal crimes. The Northern District of Alabama is 60% of Alabama’s population. The district has a branch office in Huntsville staffed by five attorneys.
During the past five years, Mrs. Martin has provided leadership and played a personal role in many significant investigations involving domestic terrorism (Eric Robert Rudolph), public corruption, corporate fraud, healthcare fraud, and violent crime, including narcotics and firearm prosecutions.
Mrs. Martin supervised the corporate fraud investigation of HealthSouth Corporation from 2003-2006, and the subsequent trial of Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth’s former CEO which was the first case prosecuted under the tenants of the Sarbanes-Oxley Statute. Those efforts resulted in the conviction of 17 corporate officers.
Mrs. Martin was selected as a “Top Ten Prosecutor” in 2004 by the Corporate Fraud Reporter.
Mrs. Martin organized the North Alabama Public Corruption Task Force in 2002 which was been responsible for significant corruption investigations involving the Jefferson County Sewer System (resulting in convictions of public employees and officials including Jewel Chris McNair); Jefferson County Commission (resulting in conviction of Commissioner Jeff Germany) and numerous officials including attorneys, a District Attorney, a Probate Judge, and other county elected officials.
Prior to serving as United States Attorney, Mrs. Martin served on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court bench, presiding over criminal and civil jury trials. Prior to her judicial career, Mrs. Martin served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee-Memphis. As a federal prosecutor, she she handled violence crimes, white-collar crimes, and defended government agencies involved in social security, bankruptcy, and medical malpractice litigation. Mrs. Martin has also enjoyed work in the private sector of law handling primarily medical malpractice defense and product liability actions. She has also practiced in the area of criminal defense law.
Mrs. Martin, a native of Mississippi, received her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, from Vanderbilt University. She is a Registered Nurse, and worked as a nurse during law school. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1981 from the University of Mississippi. She is licensed to practice law in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.