A Jefferson County Circuit judge convicted of violating ethics rules last year submitted her resignation on Tuesday.
According to reports, the judge, Tracie Todd, will officially resign on December 6. This follows a slew of controversies around her opinions and actions since 2021, when she was charged with abusing judicial power and failing to remain neutral. She was also charged with asking an attorney under oath if he gave money to her opponent’s campaign during her inaugural election in 2012.
One of the rulings in question was an attempt to rule Alabama’s death penalty statute unconstitutional. That decision was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court.
Last year, Todd was again suspended for failing to follow court orders given to her as a result of her 2021 conviction, which required her to work 90 days without pay beginning on December 6, 2021.
Todd spent most of this time in Chicago with her husband and children. She claimed she was working remotely and couldn’t return to Alabama due to COVID-19 quarantines.
Todd was prosecuted by the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC), which argued that Todd attempted to conceal she was out of state.
Reports claimed the JIC presented evidence that Todd didn’t log into the state court software from December 2021 to March 2022 and made no effort to communicate with litigants, who sometimes attended hearings after her office failed to reschedule them.
Todd’s defense said Todd directed her staff members to reopen her office while she was in Illinois. They also argued that using the court’s software is her judicial assistant’s job.
The exact reasons for Todd’s resignation are not clear.
Todd was first elected to the post in 2012 as a Democrat. She won reelection in 2018 with a term that was set to expire in 2025.
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