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  • Innocence and Override
    8th August 2016

    Alabama’s practice of judicial override, through which an elected judge can impose a death sentence even where the jury voted for life, is facing increasing scrutiny for diminishing the role of juries and allowing political pressure to affect capital cases. 

  • SCHR Calls On United States Census Bureau To Stop Prison Gerrymandering
    20th July 2016

    The U.S. Census Bureau released its proposal to count incarcerated persons at the wrong location once again for the 2020 Census. Ignoring overwhelming consensus to count incarcerated people at home, The Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released. The practice also is out of step with most state constitutions and statutes, which explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence.

  • SCHR Responds to This Week's Tragic Events
    8th July 2016

    We are deeply disturbed by the killings of 37 year old Alton Sterling and 32 year old Philando Castile, both Black men fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge, LA, and St. Paul, MN, in the span of 48 hours.

  • Coweta judge lets woman off hook after fining her $1,590 for no tag decal
    7th June 2016

    A Grantville Municipal Court judge on Tuesday canceled the $1,590 fine she had levied against a 52-year-old woman for not putting a decal on her l

  • Stephen Bright Gives Yale Law School Commencement Address
    3rd June 2016

    Yale Law School’s Commencement took place Monday, May 23, 2016. SCHR's President and Senior Counsel Stephen Bright addressed the class of 2016.

  • Georgia’s probation system has become an economic parasite
    2nd June 2016

    Go read the story by my colleague Rhonda Cook about the travails of Linda Ford, a Coweta County resident who fo

  • US Supreme Court Rules in Favor of SCHR Client in Death Penalty Case on Race Discrimination in Jury Selection
    23rd May 2016

    Today, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the conviction and death sentence of Timothy Foster in a 7-1 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts. The Court held ruling that Georgia prosecutors discriminated in striking all of the African American prospective jurors to get an all-white jury in Mr. Foster’s 1987 capital trial. The following is a statement from Stephen Bright, counsel of record for Petitioner and President of Southern Center for Human Rights.

  • Southern Center for Human Rights Applauds Governor’s Criminal Justice Reforms
    27th April 2016

    We enthusiastically support the Governor’s signing of SB367, a criminal justice reform bill that will positively impact thousands of Georgians.

  • Lawsuit Alleges that Georgia Prison Failed to Treat Man Who Died From Infected Tattoo
    4th April 2016

    STATESBORO, GEORGIA – Today, the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) and Hunton & Williams LLP, filed Davison v.

  • 2016 at the Georgia General Assembly: A Legislative Summary
    29th March 2016

    For the 16th year in a row, SCHR was a daily presence at the Georgia General Assembly. There were major victories this year, including the comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform Bill, an increased budget for Georgia’s public defender system, and reforms on grand jury procedures in police use of force cases. There were setbacks, the gutting of Georgia’s judicial watchdog agency. We helped stop several dangerous pieces of legislation, including a bill that would have mandated collection of DNA from every person arrested for “certain serious felonies” before their innocence or guilt was determined.

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