Georgia Criminal Defense Blog

The Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court got into a turf war regarding whether or not to allow convicted murder Troy Davis a stay of execution due to potential doubts regarding his guilt.

Despite the Georgia Supreme Court's attempts to push up Davis’ execution to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from having a say in the matter, the high court intervened and postponed the execution by lethal injection with fewer than two hours left.

Davis was arrested nearly 20 years ago for murder in Savannah, Georgia of police officer Mark MacPhail on August 19, 1989. The case has sparked furious emotions from across the political spectrum. The Reverend Al Sharpton construed the matter as a civil rights case and was thrilled by the news of the reprieve of the death row inmate. Virginia Davis, Troy's mother, was similarly overjoyed for the reprieve. However, Annelie Reaves, the sister of the murder victim, was outraged by the high court's intervention and pushed resolutely for capital punishment to be carried out as soon as possible.

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In a tragic story that illustrates the very real stakes that we all play with when we get behind the wheel of our cars, Craig Sumter, of Dekalb County, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian on Buford Highway. Sumter plead guilty to charges of vehicular homicide in the October 14th, 2007 death of Rebecca Jakubcin, 34. Rebecca was standing in a turn lane while walking home from dinner when she was struck by Sumter’s vehicle.

Sumter fled the scene following the accident, but police quickly apprehended him at his nearby apartment. At the time of his arrest, officers maintain that he appeared intoxicated. This was not Sumter’s first run in with the law. In 2006 he plead guilty to reckless driving after a prior drunken driving arrest. He had not complied with the terms of his probation in that case, according to a statement from the District Attorney. Under the sentence imposed Monday by Superior Court Judge Daniel Coursey, Sumter will have to serve 5 years probation upon being released from jail.

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Life can be messy. This is the fundamental truth that being an Atlanta criminal defense lawyer has taught me. We all know what living in modern American society is like. Stressed-out, overworked, we all strive to pay the bills, raise our families, find love and happiness, maintain employment, stay away from abusing alcohol or drugs, and somehow keep juggling all the balls of day-to-day life. When a Good Decent Law-Abiding Citizen is arrested, it often means that one of these balls got dropped.

Working with my clients has taught me better than any philosophy class that as human beings we are all innately fallible. As a criminal defense lawyer I have no need to be reminded that “to err is human”– I see it every day. My clients are people like these:

· Sasha, on scholarship to an exclusive private college in Boston. Under pressure to conform to the lifestyles of her wealthy friends, she succumbed to the pressure to shoplift a party dress “just this once.” The store’s policy against selective prosecution landed Sasha in jail and sent her parents frantically seeking legal advice.

· Joe, a contractor, family man, and supporter of his local law-and-order politicians. When the police pulled him over one evening for failing to stop completely at a stop sign, he failed a breathalyzer test and found himself in jail on a Georgia DUI charge.

· Martha, a single woman in her twenties who worked as a bookkeeper. When she resorted to “borrowing” from the company accounts to pay some overdue bills, the company fired her and had her arrested.

· Jerry, a long-distance trucker with a wife and two kids. The pressure to provide “just on time delivery” for his big corporate clients led Jerry to boost his drive time with crystal meth. Stopped for a moving violation, Jerry couldn’t hide the signs of habitual drug use from the officer, who arrested him and took him to jail.

· Bill and Dana, a married couple who got into a fight one night. She got so angry that she threw a glass at him. When he shouted and threw her onto the couch, she called 911. When the police came to find the fight had blown over, but because of a Zero Tolerance arrest policy they still charged Bill with battery and Dana with aggravated assault.

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Millions of American citizens are arrested by the police every year: detained, questioned, handcuffed, stuffed into the back of a police cruiser, and thrown in jail. Many of them never expected it to happen to them. These individuals are often shocked to find themselves fighting for their liberties, their reputations, and their futures in the clutches of The Beast – the impersonal, aggressive, bureaucratic, politically-charged, economically-motivated nightmare that is today’s criminal justice system. As America’s criminal justice system becomes ever larger and more powerful, it is time to ask ourselves: what should we be more afraid of? the criminals? or The Beast?

Popularized in a vast array of television shows – “Law and Order,” “CSI,” “Cold Case,” “COPS,” and “Nancy Grace,” to name a few – as white-knight police and prosecutors battling wily criminals with slick defense lawyers, the criminal justice system is widely misunderstood by the average American. The “good guy – bad guy” image is reinforced by politicians of every stripe vowing to be “tough on crime” and by special-interest groups promoting Zero Tolerance policies on the streets, in the schools, and in the workplaces. What most Americans fail to realize is that the effect of our law-and-order political philosophy has been the passage of many more criminal laws, broader definitions of what constitutes a crime, greater restrictions on civil liberties, and harsher punishments.

In the many years of defending individuals charged with crimes, Dan Conaway of Conaway & Strickler, PC has found that most of his clients have never been arrested before, or have had only minor previous infractions. Instead of hardened offenders who know how to “beat the system,” as they are portrayed on the television shows, many people questioned or arrested by the police are just ordinary individuals who have run afoul of the law. They are nearly always terrified, confused, and completely ignorant about what to do next. What’s more, because the ramifications of a conviction – even for a minor offense – have increased exponentially over the past two decades, a single misstep early on can lead to disastrous results.

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A basic flaw in many people’s thinking is that they can go to court and “talk to the judge about it” or “work things out with the prosecutor.” They believe that because they are not “one of those criminals” and their “case is the exception,” they can convince the prosecutor or judge to drop the criminal charges against them. The truth is very different. Due to Zero Tolerance policing, just about everyone who has been caught doing something the least bit illegal is now ending up in the courtroom. As a result, your general good character is not going to convince a judge or prosecutor to give you a break. When you walk into the courtroom, no matter who you are, the judge and prosecutor see you as just another criminal defendant, another piece of meat to feed to The Beast.

First, courtrooms are more crowded than ever before, and judges and prosecutors are often overworked and overwhelmed. America’s criminal justice system has grown into a huge industry – the “prison-industrial complex” -- that provides millions of jobs and massive amounts of tax revenue for states and counties. Criminal justice is the one area besides the military where politicians today can advocate for bigger government and more taxes and get elected.

Second, prosecutors and judges no longer have the independence to exercise discretion in prosecution and sentencing that they had a generation ago. Powerful special interest groups spend millions of dollars monitoring conviction rates of judges and prosecutors across the country. Officials who do not live up to the conviction targets of organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) face a very real threat of losing the next election. If you appear in their courtroom and they show you any leniency, their jobs may be on the line.

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Thanks to the information superhighway, having even a single conviction on your record can make it difficult or impossible for you to get a job, a bank loan, or a place to live. Your record is easy to access and will follow you across the country and around the world. The idea that someone convicted of an Atlanta crime can be rehabilitated and “start over” has become a thing of the past.

Finding a job with a conviction on your record has become much harder than it used to be. Corporate employers and franchisers employ companies that specialize in doing computer background checks to “weed out criminals.” These big corporate employers are not like the local mom-and-pop businesses that once might have given you a second chance. If you have a crime on your record, there is an excellent chance you won’t be hired.

Even high-ranking government officials may have trouble reentering the workforce following a criminal conviction. Former Assistant Attorney General Webster Hubbell went to jail for refusing to testify against President Clinton. When he got out, his troubles were not over. He found that many companies will not hire a convicted felon because their insurers will drop their coverage if they do. Insurance companies also may decline to issue necessary coverage – such as property or malpractice insurance – to someone with a criminal record who wants to start their own business.

The Internet leaves those with a conviction – or even an arrest – on their record vulnerable to retaliatory attack. Today we are seeing the rise of the cyber-vigilante, who posts information about people’s private criminal information on-line. In cyberspace, there are no secrets and no second chances.

Call the Georgia Criminal defense attorneys at Conaway & Strickler, PC now to avoid a conviction.

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