Nov 11, 2019 · Walter McMillian was a black man raised outside Monroeville, Alabama. He picked cotton before he was old enough to go to school, and in the 1970s he started his own pulpwood business. He wasn’t rich, but he was much more independent than most of the rest of the local black community — and much freer than the white people around him thought ...
Aug 30, 2019 · Theresa Jean-Pierre Coy might have been an unlikely attorney for Michael Drejka, a white man accused of killing an unarmed black man. The lawyer says she did it to uphold the principle that justice...
Nov 24, 2021 · Arbery family attorney slams defense's toenails comment A lawyer for the father of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man fatally shot after he was pursued by three white men in Georgia, slammed comments made by a defense attorney who spoke of the dead man’s “dirty toenails.” By The Associated Press November 24, 2021, 2:13 PM • 2 min read
May 28, 2019 · Stewart, 40, is among a growing group of prominent civil rights attorneys in the country who have become the go-to for families of black men who have been killed by police. They are confidants and...
Macon Bolling AllenFreedom Center honors lasting legacy of nation's first African American lawyer. CINCINNATI – Macon Bolling Allen became the first African American licensed to practice law in the United States in 1844, a full 18 years before the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.Feb 18, 2022
Even more sobering are the statistics regarding racial diversity. 85% of lawyers are white, compared to 77% of the U.S. population. Only 5% of lawyers are African American, 5% are Hispanic, and 3% are Asian.
Criminal defense lawyers are simply doing their duty to defend a citizen whose rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution and cannot be easily taken away.
For example, 5% of all lawyers are African American – the same percentage as 10 years earlier – but the U.S. population is 13.4% African American. Similarly, 5% of all lawyers are Hispanic – up from 4% a decade earlier – although the U.S. population is 18.5% Hispanic.
Black students represented the largest decrease. In 2018, Black students made up 7.91% of total incoming law students, but in 2019, they accounted for 7.57% of incoming law students. This drop caused the overall percentage of Black students in law school to decrease from 8.11% to 7.94%.
Millions of people. More to the point, the U.S. needs more Black lawyers because Black lawyers have a lifetime of experience and perspective on what it means to be excluded by institutional systems and structures. Black lawyers have a unique view of the ways in which the “justice” system has resulted in inequity.Oct 7, 2021
A defence lawyer is an attorney who represents the accused party in legal matters, including in a court of law. In simpler words, he/she is an advocate who pleads on behalf of the accused person.Apr 20, 2016
Can Lawyers Refuse to Defend Someone? Lawyers can refuse to defend someone unless a court refuses to grant them leave to withdraw from the matter. Common reasons why a criminal lawyer would not defend someone are if there is a conflict of interest (eg.Jan 27, 2022
A criminal defence attorney is responsible for putting together an effective defence and developing a winning strategy for their clients. As the accused's advocate and drafter, he must prepare, file, and argue on their behalf. Negotiating a plea bargain with the prosecution is part of a lawyer's job description.
13.4%United States / Black population
There are over 18,837 Lawyers currently employed in the United States. 51.5% of all Lawyers are women, while 48.5% are men. The average age of an employed Lawyer is 46 years old. The most common ethnicity of Lawyers is White (79.8%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (6.9%) and Asian (5.8%).Dec 14, 2021
Deep Read ( 7 Min. ) By Patrik Jonsson Staff writer. Tampa attorney Theresa Jean-Pierre Coy knew she’d get criticized for helping defend Michael Drejka. She is an African American, and her client was a white man accused of fatally shooting a black man in a parking lot argument.
The Drejka verdict was further evidence that at least Floridians, often the “butt of jokes nationally ... wanted to take this seriously and be taken seriously,” says Kenneth Nunn, an expert on race relations and the law at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Police initially declined to arrest Mr. Drejka after he killed an unarmed black man in an argument over a parking space. Forcing the state to prove its case protects all Americans, especially those in heavily policed minority communities, says Ms. Jean-Pierre Coy, who received some criticism for her decision to defend Mr. Drejka.
Fatal confrontation. The shooting of Markeis McGlockton by Mr. Drejka last summer outside a Circle A convenience store in north Clearwater, Florida, resonated far beyond Tampa Bay. It was yet another entry in the list of unarmed black men slain by a gun-carrying white man with either a badge or vigilante leanings.
Ms. Jean-Pierre Coy has received awards for trial advocacy from Stetson University and served as an assistant public defender in Florida’s Pinellas County, according to her law firm bio. Her own brother was convicted of a crime in 1998 and sentenced to 21 years in state prison.
The lawyer says she did it to uphold the principle that justice for all makes the system fairer for all.
He called it "a historic day for civil rights, particularly in officer-involved shootings." Stewart wanted to convey the magnitude of such a sentence for a police officer. It was the "best of inadequate justice" that civil rights cases get , he said recalling that moment . "This is all people crave, is accountability."
Because their legal strategy is often tied to media interviews and press conferences , some criticize the attorneys for sowing division -- trying to grab headlines rather than finding common ground.
Stewart now represents the family of Antwon Golatte, a black man who survived being shot by Chicago police during a traffic stop in 2015, according to CNN affiliate WBBM-TV. A police review board later ruled the shooting unjustified. His family is suing the city and several officers.
Updated 11:23 PM ET, Tue May 28, 2019. (CNN) Civil rights attorney L. Chris Stewart was sitting in church in Atlanta on an April Sunday in 2015 when he received a Facebook message with a news article and a plea from a friend. A police officer had killed her cousin, Walter Scott, and she needed help. Later that day, his phone rang in the middle of ...
Stewart arrived at the Scott family home in North Charleston, South Carolina, in the middle of the night, the day after Walter Scott was shot dead. He carried only a duffel bag and two suits, thinking he wouldn't be there for long.
Consider the role of prosecutors, who, without objective criteria, decide what the charges will be. They alone decide whether to offer a plea bargain or proceed to trial. They are usually allowed to exercise this power with impunity and outside of public view, but in the last year, the curtain has been pulled back.
The study found evidence that some state and local prosecutors were actually trained to exclude people on the basis of race and instructed on how to conceal their racial bias.
By disproportionately targeting African Americans and routinely violating their constitutional rights, Ferguson created the predatory environment in which a jaywalking stop by police officer Darren Wilson could escalate to Brown’s death.