A Prosecutor's Story

Alan A. Cook was a criminal prosecutor in the state of Georgia for over thirteen years – 10 as the elected District Attorney for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit. During his tenure as a state prosecutor, Cook tried over one hundred felony jury trials including six capital murder cases. He also authored dozens of appellate briefs and made several appearances before Georgia's Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

In 2001, the University of Georgia School of Law hired Cook to be its Director of the Prosecutorial Justice Program - a three-semester classroom and externship program. In that role, Professor Cook taught Criminal Law & Procedure to aspiring prosecutors for 18 years before retiring in 2019. In addition to this prosecutor training course, Cook also taught a Trial Practice course and coached a national invitational mock trial team.

Cook's practical experience as a prosecutor and his research as an academic resulted in his publishing of the Cook's Field Guide to Prosecution in Georgia which is now used as a textbook in three of the top four law schools in Georgia (University of Georgia School of Law, Georgia State College of Law, and Mercer University School of Law) and is widely distributed as a training manual for the prosecution community in the state of Georgia.