My name is Stephen A. Cooper and I’m a writer living in Woodland Hills, California, with my wife, Tanya, two dogs, and a cat.
As a former attorney, I write about legal issues.Since leaving law practice I have published scores of columns calling for the abolition of the death penalty, prison reform, curtailing prosecutorial misconduct, the hiring of more black prosecutors, improvements in forensic science evidence reform, and respect for public defenders. I have contributed op-eds, blogs, and columns on these and myriad other important issues impacting criminal justice reform—but also on other topics too, like rescue dogs, the environment, homelessness, and social decay—that have been published in over 100 print and online publications including (but not limited to):
USA Today
The Texas Observer
The Times of Israel
L.A. Daily Journal
The Church of England Newspaper
The Baltimore Sun
The Tennessean
The Montgomery Advertiser
JURIST
The Alabama Political Reporter
The Des Moines Register
Omaha World-Herald
The Oklahoman
The Hill
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Huffington Post
I am a reggae journalist.I have interviewed over 60 reggae legends and stars.
I have interviewed over 60 reggae legends and stars—interviews I have published on one of the world’s most respected websites for reggae, Reggae-Vibes based in the Netherlands; you can access all of my reggae interviews on the Reggae page, along with many other articles and other reggae content I’ve amassed over the years.
Currently I’m working on a book with dub pioneer and studio engineer, Hopeton Brown, known worldwide as “Scientist,” about his legendary life and career. For more information and updates about that as well as about another book I am composing that will catalogue all of my reggae journalism, check out Forthcoming Books.
I am a fiction writer.The Mayor of Woodland Hills
My story “The Mayor of Woodland Hills,” a 14-part novella, was published serially, in 2024, in Alabama’s best and most historic newspaper, The Montgomery Advertiser. That story and all of my other published short stories are located on the Short Stories page.
Before all that...Before moving to California, I worked for over a decade as a public defender representing indigent clients in serious criminal cases. Specifically, for three years, I worked as an Assistant Federal Defender in Montgomery, Alabama, where I primarily represented death row inmates in state and federal postconviction proceedings. During that same time, I was also involved in the litigation of a number of federal trial cases and cases on direct appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Before my sojourn in Alabama, I worked for over eight and a half years as a staff attorney in both the trial and appellate divisions of the Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia. At PDS, I received some of the best training in the country on how to be an effective criminal defense attorney and an abundance of hands-on experience. I argued six cases before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (including Joseph v. United States, 878 A.2d 1204 (D.C. 2005)), and I served as lead defense counsel in twelve jury trials, numerous bench trials, and four postconviction hearings.
Get in touch with Stephen