Sarah Stewart wins Republican nomination for Alabama chief justice

The Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, seen on January 24, 2023. A post-conviction hearing for death row inmates, known as Rule 32, is difficult to secure. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 overruled the state's appellate courts, which had held that a death row inmate was not entitled to a Rule 32 hearing despite two of his attorneys abandoning the case without his knowledge. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

Sarah Stewart, an associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, won the Republican nomination for Alabama Chief Justice on Tuesday, defeating former Sen. Bryan Taylor.

As of 10 p.m., Stewart had 255,123 votes (62%) in unofficial returns listed on the Alabama Secretary of State’s website. Taylor had 157,500 votes (38%).

“I am so grateful to the citizens of Alabama for trusting me with the Republican candidacy for chief justice,” Stewart said Tuesday evening. “I think we all have a lot of exciting times ahead of us. We, of course, have a race in November that I feel really good about our party’s strength in our state. I am really delighted that I have the trust of the judges, the district attorneys and the sheriffs in our state who are the everyday users of the trial court system, and really that is what the chief is responsible for as the administrative head of that system.”

She will face Democratic nominee Greg Griffin, a Montgomery County circuit judge, in the November election. Griffin ran unopposed.

The winner will succeed outgoing Chief Justice Tom Parker, who is beyond the mandatory retirement age for judges in the state.

Stewart has served on the Alabama Supreme Court since 2019.  Prior to that, she served as a circuit judge in Mobile, handling both civil and criminal cases.

Stewart earned her law degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 1992.

Taylor was a legal advisor to former Gov. Bob Riley before winning election to the Alabama Senate in 2010, serving a single term. He later worked as general counsel for Gov. Kay Ivey and deputy legal counsel for the Alabama Republican Party.

Messages were left with the Taylor campaign seeking comment.

The contest for the state’s highest judicial office received heightened scrutiny during the past couple of weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Feb. 16 that frozen embryos have the same rights as human beings.

Stewart, who joined the majority opinion, declined comment, citing the ongoing status of the case. Taylor said the state could “uphold the sanctity of life without subjecting IVF clinics to lawsuit abuse.”

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