Pro-bono hero honoured at Commons reception

12/11/2008

Mark George was recognised as a "pro-bono hero" at a reception hosted by the Attorney General Baroness Scotland Q.C. at the House of Commons yesterday, 11th November, as part of National Pro bono week. The award was in recognition of the work that Mark has done over the past eight years with the charity Amicus on behalf of prisoners on death row in the United States.

Mark teaches death penalty law and procedure and jury selection at the twice yearly training sessions run by Amicus in London. He is on the editorial board of the Amicus Journal for which he regularly writes articles about death penalty cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts and he is a trustee of the charity. During pro-bono week from 10th to 14th November, Mark is speaking on the death penalty and how law students can get involved in casework or by undertaking an internship in the US at Manchester Met, Sheffield, Nottingham Law School, Leeds and York universities.

> Pro-Bono week lectures on death penalty law

After the reception Mark said "I hope this award will help to draw attention to the plight of the more than 3,300 people currently on death row in the US, many of whom are there primarily because they are poor and couldn't afford a good lawyer or who suffered racism at the hands of police or prosecutors or were the victims of junk science, and to the work that many others also do for Amicus to help lawyers working in the US on behalf of death row prisoners."

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