Stephen Bright, Executive Director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), has been named Newsmaker of the Year by the Fulton County Daily Report for his “unrelenting efforts over the years to expose Georgia’s shortfalls in indigent defense.” Bright has worked in Georgia for more than 25 years. During that time, he has represented countless indigent defendants, many of whom have been on Georgia’s death row, and he has led the Southern Center’s fight to provide legal representation to those who are less fortunate. According to the paper, in large part because of Bright’s work to expose the state’s systemic flaws, “starting in 2005, every Georgia judicial circuit will have a public defender office providing representation to the poor, presumably ending a system that left Georgia with a 2-tier legal system - one for the poor, and one for those who could afford to pay lawyers.” (Fulton County Daily Report, December 3, 2003) See Southern Center for Human Rights. See DPIC’s report on representation.