Please join us at the 14th Annual Frederick Douglass Awards Dinner, SCHR’s annual benefit gala, as we present the 2010 Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award to the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia ("PDSDC") on their 50th Anniversary. Previously known as the Legal Aid Society, PDSDC, has demonstrated what it means to champion the rights of the underserved.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ third ruling that a white supervisor calling black men "boy"—as in "Boy, you better get going" and "hey, boy"—is not evidence of racial animus was issued last week by Judges Edward E. Carnes and William H. Pryor Jr. in an unsigned, unpublished opinion. Carnes and Pryor are white men and alumni of the Alabama attorney general's office. Read more.

Join the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Southern Center for Human Rights at the Charleston Marriott Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, September 30 – October 2, 2010, for the 13th Annual Making the Case for Life seminar.  The primary focus of the program is the investigation, development, and presentation of penalty phase mitigation evidence in capital cases.

The Southern Center for Human Rights is proud to release the 2010 Human Rights Report. This year's edition includes stories about our reinvigorated struggle to save Georgia's indigent defense system, our litigation to halt prison violence and trauma in Alabama, updates on the cases of our clients who are facing the death penalty, our victories in the Georgia General Assembly, and much more. 

In light of the passage of House Bill 571, our office has agreed to voluntarily dismiss certain claims brought in the Whitaker v. Perdue lawsuit.  After the passage of House Bill 571, these claims are now moot.  Pursuant to Rule 23(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, please see attached a Notice to the Court that describes which claims will be dismissed and which will remain in the case.  Please contact us by Friday, August 20, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. with any questions or concerns about this matter.

The Southern Center for Human Rights is proud to announce that the Fulton County Daily Report has recognized one of our lawyers, Lauren Sudeall Lucas, with its annual issue featuring Georgia's top ten lawyers under age 40. Below, read why Lauren was chosen for recognition in 2010.

On June 19, Southern Center for Human Rights' President and Senior Counsel, Stephen Bright participated in a panel discussion entitled The Federal Role in Improving Indigent Criminal Defense at the 2010 American Constitution Society convention.  Judge Paul L. Friedman, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia moderated the panel, which included in addition to Bright; Laurence H. Tribe, Senior Counselor for Access to Justice, U.S.

ATLANTA, GA, – The Center's lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to review the Georgia Supreme Court's 4-3 decision, upholding a trial judge's removal of Jamie Ryan Weis' lawyers - on motion by the district attorney - despite an ongoing attorney-client relationship of over a year. Read more.

Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher said his biggest fear for Georgia could quickly become a reality if something is not done soon to fix the state’s declining indigent defense system.

“Clearly the state has an obligation under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel to those who are indigent. The defense system is underfunded and put on the backs of 169 counties,” said Fletcher, who lives in Rome.

The indigent defense program, which provides legal aid to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it, is facing budgetary shortfalls.

ATLANTA -- The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) today announced the launch of The Damon Lee Project for Accountability and Transparency in the Criminal Justice System, an innovative program that will provide focus and structure for its ongoing work in bringing more transparency and accountability to the operation of government agencies, particularly prisons, jails and law enforcement. SCHR Senior Attorney Sarah Geraghty has been appointed project director.  

SCHR filed an amicus brief in support of Charles Lloyd, an indigent, alleged misdemeanant in Augusta who was not given a trial for two years in the State Court of Richmond County.   Mr. Lloyd is represented by the Richmond County Public Defender’s office.  Last summer, that office filed 57 motions to dismiss for speedy trial violations due to the fact that the Richmond County State Court routinely requires people who request counsel and a trial to wait for years before their cases are adjudicated.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – To guarantee the right to counsel for poor people accused of crimes in the Northern Judicial Circuit, the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) entered a Consent Order with the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council (GPDSC) and the local Public Defender Office.   The Consent Order was approved by Superior Court Judge David Roper on July 8, 2010.  

When the State of Georgia ran out of money to pay the lawyers for a man facing the death penalty, the prosecutor, of all people, had an idea. He asked the judge to appoint two overworked public defenders instead, identifying them by name.

The judge went along. The Georgia Supreme Court, by a 4-to-3 vote, endorsed the arrangement in March, saying the defendant, Jamie R. Weis, should have accepted the new lawyers to help solve the state’s budget impasse.

A Georgia law requiring that mentally retarded death penalty defendants, in order to avoid execution, must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishment, a judicial panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has found.

Jamie Weis, accused in 2006 of killing an elderly neighbor, had two state-appointed lawyers defending him from capital murder charges for more than a year.

When the state of Georgia ran out of money to pay them, the trial judge removed them, appointing public defenders who spent nearly the next two months trying to withdraw.

Weis, in county jail now for four years, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delve into what he claims is a breakdown of Georgia's public defender system.

Today, SCHR filed a brief in the Alabama Supreme Court on behalf of T.T., a 13-year-old from Mobile, Alabama.  In January 2009, T.T. was tasered by a police officer outside his middle school without provocation or justification.  Following the tasering incident, T.T.’s mother made numerous attempts to obtain records regarding the incident from the City of Mobile.

The Southern Center for Human Rights is pleased to announce that the Anti-Defamation League, one of the country’s oldest and most respected civil and human rights organizations, has recognized one of our Death Penalty lawyers, Lauren Sudeall Lucas, at its annual jurisprudence awards.

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.  David Wymore, one of the originators of this method of capital jury selection and the most sought after expert on the subject, will lead the training.

Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Bessemer, Alabama has long been an overcrowded, dangerous institution at which stabbing and beatings have left men with slit throats, punctured lungs, ruptured organs, loss of vision, paralysis, head trauma, disfigurement, and other injuries.  In February 2009, SCHR brought a lawsuit to improve safety and conditions for men at Donaldson.

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.

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.

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.