Valdosta, GA
General practice Lawyer at Valdosta, GA
Practice Areas: General Practice, Criminal Defense ... +2 more
OUTCOME: Acquitted of all charges
United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Macon Division. (No. 5:06-MJ-02-02). Mr. Lawson represented Ms. Dupree against the government after she was charged with Theft of Gove ... rnment Property. On July 11, 2006, after a three day trial, Ms. Dupree was acquited by a jury.
OUTCOME: guilty
Case #01-CR-17229 Ms. Rhodes was charged with felony murder in the death of one of her three children. Her co-defendant was a man she met over the internet. Mr. Lawson was asked to represent Ms. Rho ... des in part because there were not enough attorneys in the indigent defense program at the time time in Georgia with enough experience to handle a case of this magnitude. Mr. Lawson introduced a unique defense with the assistance of an expert witness that was so compelled by the case, she worked pro bono. Ms. Rhodes was found guilty of felony murder but was actually found not guilty of malice murder. The case highlighted the need for change in the way indigent cases are handled in Georgia when it came to light that Mr. Lawson had petitioned the court for funding to pay for an investigator and an expert witness. Conversely, the state produced several expert witnesses and had a 3-D imaging of the child's autopsy photos. The case led to an Atlanta Journal Constitution article which helped prompt the implementation of the current indigent defense program in Georgia.
OUTCOME: Appealed
Superior Court of Baldwin County (98-CV-34886). This case caught the attention of many trial attorneys in the state and highlighted the iniquity in the current sovereign immunity laws in Georgia. Pat ... ricia Coley was the sister of a man housed at Central State Hospital. Her brother was placed in a room with a known and violent paranoid schizophrenic. The schizophrenic threatened to kill Patricia's brother. He was initially removed from the room but inexplicably returned a short time later. Patricia's brother was strangled to death. The state evoked the privilege of sovereign immunity. Mr. Lawson was successful in fending off a summary judgment motion. The state appealed to the Court of Appeals. Mr. Lawson argued the case in Atlanta before the Georgia Court of Appeals. In a split decision, the state appealed. There have been several calls to amend the Georgia Tort Claims Act since this case. The case is often quoted as an example of the harshness of Georgia's sovereign immunity law.
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