Joyce Vance | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Attorney for theNorthern District of Alabama | |
| In office August 7, 2009 – January 20, 2017 | |
| Appointed by | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Alice Martin |
| Succeeded by | Jay Town |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joyce Alene White (1960-07-22)July 22, 1960 (age 64) St. George, Utah, U.S. |
| Spouse | Bob Vance |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Bates College (BA) University of Virginia (JD) |
Joyce Alene Vance (born July 22, 1960) is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for theNorthern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys, and the first female U.S. attorney, nominated by PresidentBarack Obama.
Joyce Alene White was born on July 22, 1960, inSt. George, Utah. She was raised by a divorced mother in the middle-classLos Angeles suburb ofMonterey Park, California.[1] She received aBachelor of Artsmagna cum laude fromBates College inLewiston, Maine, in 1982 and aJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law in 1985.[1]
Vance was alitigator in private practice atBradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Washington, DC, before joining theUnited States Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Alabama in 1991.[2] She spent ten years in the Criminal Division, working on investigations including that ofEric Robert Rudolph, who bombed a Birmingham abortion clinic and killed a police officer and set a string of church fires in the district.[3] She successfully prosecuted fiveBoaz, Alabama, police officers charged with Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights.[4] She moved to the Appellate Division in 2002 and became the Chief of that Division in 2005.[2][5]
Vance was nominated to become U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by President Barack Obama on May 15, 2009, and unanimously confirmed by theU.S. Senate on August 7, 2009.[2] She was sworn in on August 27, 2009, withU.S. Attorney GeneralEric Holder in attendance.[6] Holder tapped Vance to serve on his first Attorney General'sAdvisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys in October 2009.[7][8][9] Vance co-chaired the AGAC's Criminal Practice Subcommittee, along with Vermont U.S. AttorneyTristram Coffin.[10]
Vance helmed the first case of material support of terrorism in the Northern District of Alabama in 2011.[11] The defendant, Ulugbek Kodirov, pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill the President and material support of terrorism the following year and received a sentence of more than fifteen years in prison.[12] Vance was also instrumental in building awareness aboutcyber crime and working with businesses in key sectors on threat minimization and critical incident response[13][14][15][16] and prosecuted the first-ever cyber cases in the Northern District.[17]
Vance was credited with pursuing public corruption prosecutions with integrity.[18] Public corruption prosecutions were one of her top priorities.[19] Maurice William Campbell, Director of the Alabama Small Business Development Consortium, was sentenced in March 2012 to more than 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $5.9 million restitution for using his position to obtain funds meant for small businesses for his own use.[20] In 2013, she successfully prosecuted the Director of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity for using half a million dollars of the agency's funds, meant forHeadstart and other programs, to purchase real estate for herself.[21] She also prosecuted cases involving corruption and other misconduct by law enforcement.[22] She hired the first prosecutor in the Huntsville office dedicated solely to cyber prosecutions.
Vance developed a federal, state, and local law enforcement working group to deal with rapidly increasingheroin overdose deaths before the issue rose to national awareness.[23][24] At one point, her office arrested and charged more than 40 heroin dealers and traffickers in one week.[25] She held a community summit and initiated community-wide planning to develop partnerships between law enforcement, public health officials, and addiction prevention and treatment specialists.[26] She continued to aggressively prosecute heroin traffickers throughout her time in office, ensuring that ringleaders received sentences of more than 20 years.[27] The working group developed in a community-engaged initiative widely credited with working on all fronts to reduce heroin and prescription opiate addiction and overdose deaths,[28]
Vance established a civil rights enforcement unit in the office.[29][30] In 2011, she successfully challengedAlabama's immigration bill, HB 56, on constitutional grounds.[31][32] TheEleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found key portions of the law unconstitutional, and in 2013 the District Court entered a settlement in which seven challenged provisions of the law were permanently blocked.[33] Vance's office engaged with theUniversity of Alabama on allegations of racial discrimination in sorority rush in the University of Alabama'ssorority system when students brought to light the role of alumni in refusing admission to minority candidates.[34][35]
In 2014, Vance prosecuted a man for trying to hire aKKK member to murder his African-American neighbor.[36] Vance was involved in key work to protect the rights of Alabama voters, including a settlement of Alabama's violation of theMotor Voter Act that brought the state into compliance,[37] and a settlement with Jefferson County, Alabama of countywide violations ofaccess to the polls for citizens with disabilities.[38] Vance, along with Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney GeneralVanita Gupta, also launched a statewide investigation into inhumane conditions in Alabama's prisons.[39]
Vance adopted a "smart on crime" approach to violent andrecidivist crime, intending to prosecute the most significant cases facing the district so that communities would be safer. In addition to violent crime prosecution, she worked with other community partners on prevention through a violence reduction initiative and onreentry initiatives, such asBan the Box and legal clinics to help formerly incarcerated individuals reenter the community successfully and find jobs.[citation needed]
In April 2014, Amedysis Home Health Care agreed to pay $150 million to settle claims ofMedicare fraud against them that were pursued by Vance's office working together with DOJ's Civil Division and several other U.S. Attorney's Offices.[40][41] A month earlier, Vance announced that Hospice Compassus would pay $3.9 million to resolve an investigation into Medicare fraud.[42] Vance also oversaw a case in which American Family Care agreed to pay $1.2 million to the federal government under theFalse Claims Act.[43] In June 2012, Rural/Metro Ambulance agreed to pay $5.4 million to resolve allegations that it was engaged in improper billing and provision of unnecessary service.[44]
Vance prioritized fraud cases, prosecuting Jonathan Dunning for the $14 million fraud that diverted funds meant to provide healthcare to low-income individuals.[45] She prosecuted a series of cases involving fraud in car loan origination.[46] Following the tornadoes that swept through Alabama on April 27, 2011, doing severe damage across the region in what became known as the2011 Super Outbreak, Vance's office took a zero-tolerance stance on disaster fraud.[47][48] In April 2014 she successfully prosecuted a ring of five people who conspired to make $2.4 million in fraudulent claims against theBP Oil Deepwater Horizon compensation fund.[49]
In April 2017, theUniversity of Alabama School of Law announced that Vance would join the law school as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law (effective August 2017) teaching in the areas ofcriminal justice reform,criminal procedure, andcivil rights.[50]
In 2018, she signed a contract to become anMSNBC contributor, frequently providing on-air commentary regarding developments in theMueller investigation and other legal issues that involved the Trump administration.[51] Since 2021, she also co-hosts the #SistersInLawpodcast withJill Wine-Banks,Barbara McQuade and Kimberly Atkins Stohr, and the Cafe Insider podcast with fellow former U.S. AttorneyPreet Bharara.[52][53] In June 2022, Vance launched the Civil Discourse newsletter, which has since gained a readership of over 215,000 subscribers.[54][55] She sits on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center.[56] In 2024 Joyce Vance joined theBrennan Center for Justice atNew York University School of Law as a senior fellow[57]
Vance is married toBob Vance, aJefferson County Circuit Court judge. They have four children. Vance is the daughter-in-law of federal judgeRobert S. Vance, who was murdered by amail bomb in 1989.[1]
Vance is Jewish.[1][58] She had a blog (now dormant) about knitting and yarns, and raises chickens.[1]