Southern Center for Human Rights

"The Southern Center for Human Rights was founded in 1976 in response to the Supreme Court's reinstatement of the death penalty that year and to the horrendous conditions in Southern prisons and jails... Today, alongside litigation, SCHR is sharpening its use of media advocacy, taking leadership in coalition building, engaging in legislative education, and learning how to organize the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the criminal justice system." -- "History." Southern Center for Human Rights. http://www.schr.org/about/history (Retrieved November 24, 2009)

Both Tony Amadeo and Jimmy Lee Horton had their convictions and sentences dramatically overturned in 1990/1991 decisions of the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals which cited a Middle Georgia prosecutor's routine and premeditated exclusion of minorities from jury pools. The Carzell Moore case (along with the case of Timothy Dawson) eventually led to the Georgia State Supreme Court's 2001 decision overturning the use of the electric chair as "cruel and unusual punishment."

"In 1973, six members of the Alday family were murdered by men who had escaped from a Maryland prison. It was an especially gruesome crime, and three of the men--Carl Isaacs, Wayne Coleman and George Dungee--were sentenced to death in 1974. (Isaacs' brother Billy, who joined the men after their escape, turned state's evidence and eventually served 20 years of a 40-year sentence for armed robbery.) But because the court found the men could not have had a fair trial due to the publicity surrounding the murders, the capital convictions were reversed." -- "The Man Who Wouldn't Wait." Super Lawyers. http://www.superlawyers.com/georgia/article/The-Man-Who-Wouldnt-Wait/37bb9da9-58df-445d-a869-2762bcabb220.html (Retrieved November 24, 2009)

"Eddie Finney was sent to death row for killing two Macon women. Finney, along with Johnny Mack Westbrook, kidnapped, robbed, bound and then beat to death the women, Thelma Kalish, 67, and Ann Kaplan, 65, in September 1977. Westbrook was sentenced to death but that sentence was later overturned." -- "Jones and Baldwin counties have more inmates on death row than other midstate counties combined." WillRobinson47.com http://www.willrobinson47.com/2006/02/26/ (Retrieved November 24, 2009)

From the description of Southern Center for Human Rights papers, circa 1980-2005. (University of Georgia). WorldCat record id: 471480278