Prominent death row activist Bryan A Stevenson to deliver Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture
Released on: March 20, 2008, 8:47 am
Press Release Author: Jimmy Hart
Industry: Law
Press Release Summary: Bryan A. Stevenson, acclaimed public interest lawyer who has helped reduce or overturn more than 65 death sentences, will deliver the TU College of Law's Eighth Annual Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture on April 9.
Press Release Body: The University of Tulsa College of Law welcomes Bryan A. Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., to give the Eighth Annual Buck Colbert Franklin Civil Rights Lecture on April 9.
Stevenson has earned national recognition for his representation of underprivileged people and death row prisoners in the deep South. Those efforts have successfully overturned dozens of capital murder cases and death sentences where underprivileged people have been unconstitutionally convicted or sentenced.
His work has earned several national awards, including the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year, the American Bar Association Wisdom Award for Public Service, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Olof Palme Prize for International Human Rights and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award.
The Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture honors one of the first black attorneys in Tulsa and in Oklahoma. In the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Franklin served his community and his profession by assisting victims of the riot. Working in a tent, as his offices and home were destroyed during the riot, he represented clients, filed briefs and fought back against the injustice of the riot and the city's assault on the Tulsa black community. He won a critical court decision striking down a city ordinance designed to prevent blacks from rebuilding their homes in Tulsa.
The lecture will be held at Sharp Chapel, 2940 E. 6th Street, on the TU campus at 7:30 p.m. It is free to attend and open to the public.
ABOUT THE TU COLLEGE OF LAW The TU College of Law provides an academically rigorous, yet congenial atmosphere with opportunities for scholarship, leadership and faculty mentoring. Students develop practical skills through participation with student-driven legal journals, award-winning moot court teams, two on-campus clinics and a new pro bono program. Joint interdisciplinary degrees include a JD/MBA and JD/MTAX and unique specialties include energy and environmental law and Native American law. The Mabee Legal Information Center is recognized as one of the nation's top university law libraries. The TU College of Law is one of the four colleges of The University of Tulsa, which is ranked among U.S. News and World Report's Top 100 Universities. To find out more visit: www.law.utulsa.edu.
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