Equal Justice Initiative

EJI celebrated Joe Garlock's graduation this month from our Post-Release Education and Preparation (PREP) program. Launched in 2008, PREP provides a wide range of assistance to people released from incarceration, including a full-scale residential re-entry program.

On April 30, 2010, Alabama Governor Bob Riley signed a new law that limits incarceration in Alabama's overcrowded prisons for people on probation who commit no new offense but technically violate the terms of their probation. The new law gives judges more non-incarceration options for addressing technical probation violations.

EJI staff with honoree Diane Jones, second from left.

On March 23, 2010, EJI honored George Kendall, Director of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's Public Service Initiative, and Thomas Sager, general counsel of the DuPont Company and DuPont's legal department, with its Equal Justice Award. The second annual award event celebrated the triumph of Diane Jones, the first woman in Alabama to be released from Tutwiler Prison after being sentenced to life in prison without parole.

EJI lawyers Bryan Stevenson and Brandon Buskey, seated, argue before the Supreme Court.

On October 8, 2009, the Alabama Supreme Court and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral arguments at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the court system's outreach and education efforts. EJI attorneys were asked by the courts to participate in both oral arguments.

Kenneth Frazier (left) won the release of James "Bo" Cochran, who spent 19 years on Alabama's death row for a crime he did not commit.

The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in Caperton v. Massey about whether West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin violated the Constitution when he cast the deciding vote in favor of his campaign contributors, who spent $3 million to get him elected to the appellate court.

EJI's largest funder, the JEHT Foundation, will shut down at the end of this month and will not be able to provide grants committed to EJI for the next three years because its funds were stolen by money manager Bernard Madoff.

On September 17, 2008, EJI attorneys filed a complaint in Montgomery County Circuit Court alleging that the State of Alabama's application of the Community Notification Act's adult sex offender residency and notification requirements against Andrew Miller, a mentally retarded, visually impaired, and physically disabled man, violate his and his family's constitutional rights.

The State of Alabama continues to deny the right to vote to citizens who have served and completed sentences for felony convictions. Alabama's disenfranchisement rate of one in 14 residents is triple the national average.

A young black teen has asserted that he was physically assaulted by Sheriff Larry Amerson after being handcuffed and shackled while visiting the Calhoun County, Alabama, jail as part of a crime prevention program.