6-2051-5208
House Information Office Room 505, Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334 404-656-5082 1-800-282-5800
June 3, 2004
For Immediate Release
Local Resident Appointed to Public Defender Selection Panel
Atlanta-- State Representative Charles Jenkins (D-Blairsville) has nominated Pamela Kendall Floyd of Hiawassee, Georgia to the Public Defender Selection Panel for the Enotah Judicial Circuit. Mrs. Floyd will be charged with helping select a public defender for the Enotah Circuit, which is one of 49 judicial circuits in Georgia.
Mrs. Floyd runs her own general law practice in her hometown of Hiawassee. She is married to Shannon Floyd who is a teacher at Towns County High School and has a 3 year-old son Kendall, and a 1 year-old daughter Venessa. A member of the Macedonia Baptist Church, Mrs. Floyd is on the Towns County Chamber of Commerce, a member of Relay for Life and Secretary of the Enotah Bar Association. Mrs Floyd has worked as a law clerk for the Enotah Judicial Circuit where she reviewed pleadings, prepared legal opinions and draft orders and prepared legal memorandum on issues of civil and criminal procedure. She also served as former Governor Zell Miller's press assistant and as a law clerk in his administration.
In 2003 the General Assembly adopted HB 770 which was aimed at fixing how Georgia provides legal representation for the poor. The legislation created an 11-member state board to oversee public defender offices in the state's 49 judicial circuits. Public defender offices would provide legal representation to indigents charged only in Superior or Juvenile courts, but would be allowed to contract with county courts to handle misdemeanor cases.
The state board overseeing public defender offices will begin operating in 2005. They will set standards of performance to ensure quality representation and can remove defenders whose quality of representation fails to meet the standards adopted.
Selection panels are now being appointed in each of the 49 judicial circuits in order to begin naming public defenders to meet the requirements of HB 770.
The federal courts had threatened to step in and mandate a system unless lawmakers made changes that provide adequate representation for all.
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For further information please contact Charles Jenkins office at 404-656-0254.