2006-07 WINTER NEWSLETTER
GEORGIA FOI ACCESS
GEORGIA FIRST AMENDMENT FOUNDATION

 Visceral truths of 2007 law and journalism at the Georgia Bar, Media and Judiciary Conference

By Tom Bennett

Atlanta, Jan. 27, 2007 – The sunshine of a bright winter’s day was reflected in the steel and glass skyscrapers of the fashionable Buckhead area, but inside one of the hotels, there were reminders of the dark recesses of Georgia justice and journalism.

The 16th annual Georgia Bar, Media and Judicary Conference at the JW Marriott Hotel on Lenox Road had a lively workshop entitled, "Dollars and the Dome: Finding Justice." This dovetailed nicely with news of the day, but it was news that does not stir pride in the state, its government or its people.

Six men in Georgia prisons have had their convictions thrown out following analysis of DNA evidence. They didn’t do the crimes for which they served a combined multiple decades behind bars.  Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield of DeKalb County has announced she will be sponsoring legislation during this session to get better standards in Georgia for convicting people of crimes.

How many more are there? There are 188,000 indigent cases a year, said one of the panelists, Michael Mears, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. Mears repeated the number to make sure everyone heard it: 188,000. His council is three years old. It was created thanks to the hard work of Norman Fletcher, then Georgia Supreme Court chief justice and now in law practice in Rome, Ga. (and a previous recipient of the Weltner Freedom of Information Award), and Bill Rankin, legal writer for the Journal-Constitution.

They helped get the council started, but were forced to watch as it was done the way many reforms are – without the needed cash. Mears’ group scrapes by defending 188,000 in 159 counties on about $40 million a year.  That amount is raised solely from fines and fees. The council doesn’t get any outlays from the General Assembly. Now contrast that figure with what Mears says is needed to hire enough good lawyers to properly represent this tide of broke defendants: about $100 million a year.  "There lies the real crux," Mears said. "If you don’t have the resources to defend these people’s rights, then they go to prison."

Once in a prison, you spend about eight years exhausting your habeas corpus appeals, said Mears, who has defended 60 Georgia death row cases.  One of Georgia’s freed six, Pete Williams, languished in jail for 21 years. Nationally, 127 persons have been exonerated from death row, according to Mears.

He worried out loud at the Bar, Media and Judiciary Conference about the additional uncertainty his organization faces now that it appears it will be moved out of the judicial branch of state government.William Boyett, another of the panelists, is chief judge of the Conasauga Judicial Circuit in in northwest Georgia and president of the Georgia Council of Superior Court judges. He confirmed that the state’s Superior Courts "don’t want the indigent defense lawyers in their budget."

Thomas Boller of the Capitol Public Affairs Group is the lobbyist for the State Bar of Georgia. He raised an issue about a changing General Assembly. It is one that critics of the profession might cheer, but which he said harms reforming indigent defense.

"We don’t have as many lawyers in the legislature, so it’s harder to make the case for indigent defense," Boller said.

‘FINDING LAWYERS FOR CRIMINALS’

Mark Cohen of Troutman Sanders LLP law firm of Atlanta is a former aide to Gov. Zell Miller, and before that he was a Georgia assistant attorney general. "These (indigent lawyer) folks do deserve funding, but there is limited funding," Cohen said. "It’s just not popular to discuss finding lawyers for criminals. The multi-billion-dollar education and health care programs are what’s on the governor’s mind most of the time. These other issues go to the General Assembly and he says, ‘I’ll deal with them when they come to my desk (as bills for him to sign).’"

On the journalism side, now that the DNA revolution in corrections has reached Georgia, the newspapers face having to consider shifting resources to begin covering criminal cases not involving anyone famous. Each criminal case can have violent detail of actions with guns, explosives and knives. As soon as the papers start printing this in any volume, the letter to the editor e-mail folder fills up with outrage at what is viewed as a preoccupation with crime. The exemption to disclosure in O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(4) for a crime investigation drops an iron curtain on the specifics of a case as soon as any charge is filed. This lasts until the investigation "is no longer pending when all direct litigation has become final."

YOU CAN EXPERIENCE a level of glitter in Atlanta’s Buckhead area that is comparable to that of Manhattan. However, no matter the locale, once a serious workshop occurs about needed reforms in Georgia government, sooner or later there will be some reminder of how quaint and backward it can be. For example, it is the last state with sole-commissioner counties and has 11 of them.

David L Ratley is director of the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts. During today’s discussion of judicial funding, he said: "I spent 25 years working for Superior Courts. I have made literally hundreds of budget presentations. I once made a budget presentation to a sole commissioner while he was milking a cow."

CHANGING FIXED ATTITUDES ABOUT EACH OTHER

One hundred-sixty persons signed up for this daylong event. It is one of many that lawyers can attend to accrue their Continuing Legal Education points. Over the years it’s been interesting to see how many enter with fairly stereotypical views of journalists, but grudgingly modify them as the day goes along. The same happens to the journalists regarding the lawyers, too.

Hank Klibanoff, assistant managing editor for news at the Journal-Constitution, is co-author with journalism legend Gene Roberts of "The Race Beat," a 2006 book about the history of reporting on civil rights. Klibanoff began his luncheon speech by saying that reporters and lawyers "live at the same intersection. We are fascinated by the same human foibles."

SIXTEENTH BAR, MEDIA AND JUDICIARY -- FOR THE RECORD

The other seminar topics of the conference this year were: "Citizen journalism: New media and new voices"; "Public officials and public trials"; "Atlanta and Guantanamo, rights in the aftermath of 9/ll"; "Diversity and the media"; "Open government: An advocacy workshop"; "Preparing for the high-profile case"; and "Judicial elections, lessons from 2006."

The interlocutors of the workshops diplomatically cut off monologues and promote give and take. This year these roles were filled capably by Richard Belcher of WSB Television; Dale Cohen of Cox Enterprises; Richard Griffiths of CNN; Ed Bean of the Fulton Daily Report; Hon. Cynthia Becker of the DeKalb Superior Court; and Cathy Cox of the University of Georgia School of Law.

The conference planning committee this year included:Joe Bankoff of Woodruff Arts Center; Hon. Anne Elizabeth Barnes of the Georgia Court of Appeals; Derek Bauer of Powell Goldstein LLP; Ed Bean of the Fulton County Daily Report; Hon. Cynthia Becker of DeKalb Superior Court; Peter Canfield of Dow Lohnes PLLC; Roger Chalmers of Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP; Tom Clyde of Dow Lohnes PLLC; Dale Cohen of Cox Enterprises Inc.; Sarah Coole of the State Bar of Georgia; Cynthia Counts of Counts & Associates; Michael Cuccaro of Georgia Technological Authority.

Also Kim Dammers, assistant U.S. attorney, Northern District of Georgia; Jennifer Davis of Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial; Jim Ellington of Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley; Marsha Elzey of the Council of Superior Court Judges; Ben Erwin of Powell Goldstein LLP; Carolyn Forrest of Fox Television; Elizabeth Fox of King & Spalding LLP; Lesli Gaither of Dow Lohnes PLLC; Larry Jones of the Georgia Institute for Continuing Legal Education; Tom Lundin of King & Spalding LLP; Hollie Manheimer of Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

Also Shawn McIntosh of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Hyde Post of the Journal-Constitution; Rachel Ramos of the Atlanta Business Chronicle; Bob Rothman of Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP; Eric Schroeder of Powell Goldstein LLP; Michael Smith, chief staff attorney of Clayton County; Hon. Rucker Smith of the Southwestern Judicial Circuit; Sheila Tefft of Emory University; James Washburn of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP; Jill Wasserman of King & Spalding LLP; and Hon. Melvin Westmoreland of the Fulton Superior Court.

This web site you are reading has many resources useful to every reporter, editor and news director. Another wonderful tool for them is handed out to all who attend the Bar, Media and Judiciary conference, and is also on-line at this site (click on the home page). A definitive, inch-thick booklet summarizes aspects of Georgia law including the developments in open government over the past six decades. Following are the names of the handout’s sections:

• "Access to court records and proceedings";
• "Access to records under Georgia Open Records Act";
• "Access to Meetings under Georgia Open Meetings Act";
• "Subpoenas, the Reporter’s Privilege and the Georgia Shield Law"; and
• "Georgia’s Anti-Slapp Statute."

Tom Bennett is a retired Atlanta newsman and writes about access issues for Georgia FOI Access.