Liberty Bell Award given to Judge Booker T. Stephens

The 2009 Liberty Bell Award was presented to Judge Booker T. Stephens, Chief Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit in McDowell County.  Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin presented the Liberty Bell Award to Judge Stephens during a Law Day ceremony in Welch on May 1, 2009.

The Liberty Bell Award is presented each year to one who has "promoted better understanding of the rule of law, encouraged greater respect for the law and the courts, stimulated a sense of civic responsibility, or contributed to good government in the community," according to criteria set by the American Bar Association.

Judge Stephens was given the award for his hard work in recognizing Law Day in McDowell County and his encouragement of McDowell County School children. He has hosted his own Law Day celebration in the county since 1996. The 2009 ceremony involved a luncheon held at the Welch United Methodist Church where Judge Stephens was surprised with the Liberty Bell Award.

Judge Stephens has served the West Virginia court system in many ways. He was a member of the Task Force on Self-Represented Litigants in the late 1990's and this year agreed to serve on the Access to Justice Commission Subcommittee on the same topic.  He served on the original Law Day Committee for the Supreme Court in 2001. 

Judge Stephens has been highly decorated this year, also having received the "Living the Dream Award," from the Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Commission as part of the state's Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday weekend in January 2009. Also, this summer, Judge Stephens was re-appointed to the Mass Litigation Panel by Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin.

Judge Stephens was elected to the Circuit Court of McDowell County in November 1984 and was re-elected in 1992 and 2000. He has served as Chief Judge of the circuit since 1990. In February 1985 Judge Stephens was appointed by then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Neely to serve with a panel of four other circuit judges on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to hear a case which all the then-serving justices were disqualified from hearing. That service made him the first black judge in the history of West Virginia to sit on the Supreme Court of Appeals.  Since 1985, Judge Stephens has been designated to sit on the Supreme Court of Appeals on nine occasions.

He is a member of the Supreme Court's Task force on Self Representation, and a member of the Task Force to Study Perceived Racial Disparity in the Juvenile Justice System in West Virginia.  This year he agreed to serve on the Access to Justice Commission Subcommittee on the same topic.  

He is a former Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for McDowell County. He served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates where in 1980 he became Chairman of the Standing Committee on Political Subdivisions.  He takes great pride in being a co-sponsor and floor leader of the bill that made Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a state holiday.

Now a resident of Welch, Judge Stephens was born on November 3, 1944, in Bluefield and raised in Warriormines, West Virginia. He is the son of the late Reverend Robert L. Stephens, Sr., and the late Estella Stephens.

He graduated from Excelsior High School in 1962 and from West Virginia State College in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Spanish.  In 1972 he received his law degree from the Howard University School of Law, and also was selected as an Earl Warren Fellow sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  He began practicing law in 1973 and was a Cooperating Attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1974 to1984.

Judge Stephens served in the United States Army from 1966 to1968.  He was inducted into the West Virginia State College ROTC Hall of Fame in October 2002.

Judge Stephens was selected by then-Governor Bob Wise to be the recipient of the Governor's "Living the Dream" Award on January 18, 2003, sponsored by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Commission. The award is presented annually to a person who best represents the qualities and attributes of Dr. King, by being an advocate of peace, sharing of self, human and civil rights, and scholarship.

In 2003 Judge Stephens also became chairman of the McDowell County HSTA Program, and was selected by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph to be featured in the 2005 "Pride" Edition of Heroes and Legends. In 2007, Judge Stephens was a recipient of the Fred H. Caplan Civil Justice Award by the West Virginia Association of Justice and inducted into the West Virginia All Black Schools Sports and Academic Hall of Fame.

He is a member of the West Virginia Judicial Association, West Virginia State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association, and is a West Virginia Bar Foundation fellow. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, and is presently a member of the Standing Committee on Minorities in the Judiciary of the American Bar Association. He has served on the faculty of the National Judicial College in Reno,  Nevada, and has lectured for the American Conference Institute on insurance bad faith and punitive damages. He is an adjunct instructor at the West Virginia University College of Law and Bluefield State College.

He is also a member of Delta Theta Phi Legal Fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Price Hall Mason F&A.M. 32^nd Degree Shriner and a life member of the NAACP.

Judge Stephens is married to the former Gloria M. Davis, and attorney, and they have two children, Attorney Ciara Stephens of Los Angeles, California, and Booker T. Stephens, II, of Welch.

 
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