Born February 19, 1913, in Los Angeles, California, the son of United States Circuit Judge Albert Lee Stephens Sr. and brother of California Court of Appeal Associate Justice Clarke E. Stephens,[1] Stephens received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1936 from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Laws in 1938 from the USC Gould School of Law.

He was appointed by Governor Pat Brown as Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, serving from 1959 to 1961.

[1][2] Stephens was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on August 28, 1961, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of California vacated by Judge Benjamin Harrison.

[2] His service terminated on September 6, 2001, due to his death of heart failure in Mammoth Lakes, California, while on a fishing trip with former clerk and other friends.

[1] Stephens supervised the large number of cases that arose from the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.