Mack Crawford Named New Director

Atlanta, Georgia, July 24, 2007- The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is pleased to announce the selection of  Mr. Robert “Mack” Crawford as the Council’s new Director.  Mr. Crawford replaces the founding director B. Michael Mears who had resigned to accept a faculty position at the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta.  Mr. Crawford will begin his duties as Director officially on August 1, 2007.

Mr.  Crawford, a lifelong resident of Pike County, Georgia, graduated in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law with a JurisDoctorate degree.  He was admitted to the State Bar in 1987 and is a member in good standing.  He began his post-secondary matriculation at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and graduated in 1974.  In 1976 he received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Georgia- College of Agriculture. Professionally, Mr. Crawford has maintained a private practice in Pike Countysince 1987.  Additionally, he has been involved with different real estate partnerships, acted as a consultant to major timber companies, and operates a farm.  Mr. Crawford is married to the formerly known Ms. Jamie Thompson who is an elementary school teacher in Pike County and together they have two adult children.

Mr. Crawford has fifteen years of legislative experience.  He was first elected November 1992 to the Georgia House of Representatives, to represent the 129th  (presently the 127th) District of Pike and Upson Counties.  He served on several committees  including  Judiciary, Agriculture, Appropriations, Public Safety, and theGeneral Oversight Committee for indigent defense.  During his tenure, Mr. Crawford was actively involved with indigent defense issues including the drafting and passage of House Bill “1 EX” during the 2004 Georgia General Assembly, which created the funding mechanisms for the present public defender system.    Mr. Craword also chaired the legislative General Oversight Committee during the 2006 Session of the General Assembly and chaired the Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of appropriations for the criminal justice system.

Mr. Crawford brings an added dimension to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.  He intends to continue building and forming new coalitions and consensus among the Council, the Governor’s Office, legislators, local governing authorities, judges, and other criminal justice entities.  With his leadership he hopes to advance the mission of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council and improve the statewide indigent defense system that is already a model for other states.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is an independent agency within the executive branch of the state government of Georgia. The mission of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is to ensure, independently of political considerations or private interests, that each client whose cause has been entrusted to a circuit public defender receives zealous, adequate, effective, timely, and ethical legal representation, consistent with the guarantees of the Constitution of the State of Georgia, the Constitution of the United States and the mandates of the Georgia Indigent Defense Act of 2003; to provide all such legal services in a cost efficient manner; and to conduct that representation in such a way that the criminal justice system operates effectively to achieve justice.

[Reference: O.C.G.A. § 17-12-1 (c), Georgia Indigent Defense Act of 2003]

-End-