Clarence Darrow Courage Award Presented to Rome Public Defender

Atlanta – Culminating a week-long training session at Unicoi State Park, Georgia’s circuit public defenders honored public defender Karen Wilkes with the Clarence Darrow Courage Award on January 20, 2006.  The award is given each year to a public defender who has exemplified the qualities and courage of the legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow in the representation of an indigent person.  The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council’s director Michael Mears presented the award to Wilkes.

Wilkes received the award for her work on a recent case in the Griffin Judicial Circuit involving a defendant who entered a guilty plea six years earlier without an attorney being appointed to represent him.   Upon requesting an attorney, the man was told by the judge that if his case went to trial he would receive a 45-year sentence. After serving six years in prison, he was granted a new trial and Wilkes took on the case. With only three weeks to prepare for trial, she presented a defense so sound that the jury found her client not guilty after only 45 minutes of deliberation.

"Karen should be an example for our newer public defenders throughout the state. Her dedication to her client and to the principles of our public defender system is a good example of the work which well trained and dedicated public defenders can perform, " Mears stated. "We are all very proud of her and her work."

Wilkes is the Conflict Defender for the Rome Judicial Circuit. Prior to joining the conflict office, she was an Assistant Public Defender with the Rome Judicial Circuit, an Indigent Defense Contract Attorney in Floyd County and a sole practitioner in Rome. She has extensive trial work, including at least 100 criminal jury trials, hundreds of probation and parole revocation hearings, a dozen state court criminal appeals, six federal criminal appeals, a dozen state and federal habeas corpus petitions and appeals, and hundreds of civil and domestic cases. Wilkes is a member of NACDL and GACDL; former regional vice president of GACDL; periodic guest lecturer at UGA law school; volunteer research consultant for GACDL and member advisory board Georgia Innocence Project. She obtained her A.B. Economics Degree and J.D. from the University of Georgia.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is an independent agency within the judicial branch of state government. Passed in 2003 by the Georgia General Assembly, the Indigent Defense Act created the agency and charged it with assuring that adequate and effective legal representation is provided, independent of political and private interests to ensure that justice is achieved for all indigent defendants in Georgia.

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