Eddie Burkhalter is a researcher for Alabama Appleseed. In that role he investigates Alabama’s reliance on court fines and fees to fund government, predatory policing, and the state’s troubled prisons.
Eddie graduated from Jacksonville State University with a bachelor’s degree in integrated studies. He moved to Alabama from his home state of Georgia in 2001, and while studying at Jacksonville State University, Eddie took a job at a local weekly newspaper. A few years later he moved on to that company’s daily paper, The Anniston Star.
Eddie spent almost a decade at The Anniston Star, covering education, business, crime, politics and winning numerous Alabama Press Association awards for his coverage. In 2019 he began reporting for Alabama Political Reporter, where he covered state politics, prisons, COVID and Alabama connections to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and events leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Additionally, Eddie contributed reporting on COVID-19 in prisons for the New York Times, which was part of the overall COVID coverage that won the newspaper the prestigious Pulitzer Prize public service award in 2022.
He was selected to participate in the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism fellowship program in 2019, and mentors current fellows in the program. Eddle lives in Piedmont, Alabama.
