Elberton – Instead of sitting on the bench Wednesday, where he has presided as judge for 15 years, John Bailey Jr. sat a few feet away -- below on the witness stand.

Bailey, chief judge of the Northern Judicial Circuit, recounted how the court system here almost collapsed two years ago when lawyers began abandoning their indigent clients because they weren’t being paid.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – This afternoon, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge ordered the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council to appoint lawyers for inmates seeking to file appeals within 30 days.  Judge Jerry W. Baxter granted a mandamus and class certification in Maurice Flournoy, et al. v. The State of Georgia, et al., a class action lawsuit brought against the state to secure lawyers for indigent persons in Georgia who have been convicted of offenses carrying a term of incarceration and who are currently without legal representation.

May 13-15, 2010

Death penalty voir dire is one of the most difficult yet crucial skills for lawyers to master.

Join us for a unique hands-on training program limited to 54 capital defense attorneys. Participants will work with a faculty of masters of capital voir dire for two and a half packed days to learn, refine and master the art and science of death penalty jury selection.

Happy New Year to all of SCHR's friends and supporters! As we celebrate the victories from the past years under the direction of Lisa Kung and Stephen Bright; we are thrilled to usher in 2010 with a new leader, our long time Public Policy Director, Sara Totonchi.

Lisa Kung has received a fellowship from the Open Society Institute to investigate the dichotomy in the way some Southern communities of color navigate and deal with challenges and opportunities. She will travel throughout the South interviewing members of these communities for a series of oral history podcasts.

MONTGOMERY, AL — The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) is disappointed by the Commissioner’s statement of December 9, 2009 regarding violence at Donaldson Correctional Facility.  A more appropriate response would have been to apologize to the public for providing erroneous information and to promise to make public the result of an investigation into how these errors occurred.  

MONTGOMERY, AL — The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has repeatedly released inaccurate information to the public, significantly underreporting the number of persons assaulted in state custody, according to an analysis by the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR).  SCHR recently confirmed that the ADOC failed to report to the public numerous assaults that occurred at one Alabama prison, Donaldson Correctional Facility, over at least one year.

The Southern Center for Human Rights is proud to announce the publication of our 5th Edition of the Georgia Advocacy Handbook: A Guide to Helping Loved Ones in Georgia Prisons.

On November 10, 2009, SCHR President and Senior Counsel Stephen B. Bright presented arguments to the Georgia Supreme Court on behalf of Jamie Weis, a mentally ill man who was denied funding for legal representation to represent him in his capital case for over two years.

A national gay rights group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Department on behalf of 19 people who say they were illegally searched and detained during a late-night raid on a crowded gay bar.

Maybe nowhere else is the saying "money talks" more true than in courts such as Richmond County State Court.  Someone who can afford to pay off fines assessed for traffic and other misdemeanor offenses can usually walk out of court a free person. Anyone who can't pay might find himself entangled in the system with a financial debt that keeps growing as he faces the prospect of either paying the court or going to jail.

On October 2, 2009, SCHR filed five motions for summary judgment in Whitaker v. Perdue on behalf of the class of all persons on the registry.  In these briefs, SCHR is asking the Court to strike down as unconstitutional various parts of Georgia’s sex offender law, including the prohibition against living within 1,000 feet of churches, school bus stops, and swimming pools and the prohibition against working within 1,000 feet of churches, schools, and child care centers.  The motions, are as follows:

Today, SCHR Attorney Lauren Sudeall Lucas filed an amicus curiae brief in the Georgia Supreme Court in support of Lisa Harrelson, a woman from Augusta, GA who is challenging the constitutionality of cities and counties being able to contract with for-profit, private probation companies as well as the $50 public defender application fee. Ms. Harrelson is represented by Attorney John B. “Jack” Long of Augusta's Tucker, Everitt, Long, Brewton & Lanier. Read the Brief.

MONTGOMERY, AL, September 18, 2009—Today, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an Order compelling the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections to comply with Alabama’s Open Records Act in the case of Mary Barksdale v. Richard Allen.  The suit, filed in September, 2007 by the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) and Huntsville attorneys Jake Watson and Herman Watson Jr, seeks an order requiring Commissioner Richard Allen to produce public records regarding a number of deaths, stabbings and assaults in Alabama prisons.