Heroes seem few and far between these days, or maybe I’m just being a little cynical. I’m listening to the audiobook version of Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt right now and wondering why more political leaders are not cut out of something resembling a similar mold of intergrity and leadership.

Since I’ve been practicing law, I’ve looked to Stephen Bright as an eloquent and fearless champion of the poor, the accused, and the convicted. His oral argument last year in the Weis case stands out as one of the best I have watched. When asked whether death penalty defense counsel should be compelled to defend their clients for free, Mr. Bright suggested that the justices on the Supreme Court, bailiffs, and prosecutors should be compelled to do so also.

His new blog, Second Class Justice, launched a few days ago with several hard-hitting posts about the deplorable state of indigent defense in the State of Georgia and the abyssmal state of death penalty defense in the State.

I will look forward to reading Mr. Bright’s new blog and hope that you will add Second Class Justice to your RSS feed. What he says is relevant to our justice system in Georgia.