Thomas McKee West collection

Descriptive Summary
Title: Thomas McKee West collection
Creator: West, Thomas McKee
Creator: Citronberg, Robert
Inclusive Dates: 1983-2003
Language(s): English
Extent: 1.5 Linear Feet 3 document boxes
Collection Number: ms3244
Repository: Hargrett Library

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Collection Description

Historical Note

Thomas M. West graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law. Upon graduation in 1973 he worked as a staff attorney in the University of Georgia School of Law Legal Clinic, litigating Constitutional issues and in the process helped create significant legal precedent concerning the rights of parolees and the rights of those pleading guilty. After two years with the legal clinic, attorney West took a position in Atlanta as the first director of the Southern Prisoner Defense Committee. The SPDC litigated prison condition cases in federal courts in Georgia and Tennessee including a class action case, which closed down the infamous H-House, the punitive isolation chamber at the Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Center. Attorney West has had an active criminal, personal injury, and police brutality practice in Atlanta since 1980. Law Group of Geerdes & Kim, LLC - Thomas McKee West, Esq. http://www.gklawgroup.com (Retrieved August 12, 2009)

Scope and Content

The collection consists of copies of documents, textual and audio, accumulated during Thomas M. West's successful challenge - in the case of Timothy Dawson vs. The State of Georgia - to the state of Georgia's law prescribing death by electrocution in the electric chair in death penalty cases. This includes fifteen digital copies of 22 Georgia electrocutions of prisoners between 1983 and 1996. These recordings are copies of West's tapes which were themselves dubs of original tapes recorded by members of the state's Department of Corrections for their own records, and later subpoenaed and entered into state court records as part of challenges to the electric chair statute. In addition, the collection includes copies of materials (transcripts, documents, affidavits, autopsy records, etc.) West and his co-counsel Robert Citronberg had accumulated to date of donation (August 2004) in support of legal challenges to the Georgia statute prescribing lethal injection as the new means of state execution.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Thomas McKee West collection, ms3244, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.

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Related Materials and Subjects

Subject Terms

Related Collections in this Repository

Related materials available in the following collections of this repository: Southern Center for Human Rights collection, ms3277.

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Series Descriptions and Folder Listing

 

box

folder

Request box

1

1

Index to Dawson case record filed with Georgia Supreme Court appeal

 

1

2

Background (from Lexis- Nexis)

 

1

3

Faxes (cover sheets) re: Shoobis order

 

1

4

Religious community seeks writ of mandamus vs. Corrections Dept. over electric chair, 2001 April

 

1

5

Spivey motions and orders re: Electrocution

 

1

6

Electric chair photo

 

1

7

Lethal injection challenge notes

 

1

8

Judge Shoob's order

 

1

9

Judge Shoob's amended order

 

1

10

Atty General's motion to reconsider

 

1

11

Dawson's brief opposing Attorney General's motion to reconsider

 

1

12

Amic: Curiae of Georgia Resource Center and Multi- County Defender

 

1

13

Attorney General's reply to Dawson's brief opposing Amicus: Curiae

 

1

14

Dawson's brief for interim appellate review by Georgia Superior Court

 

1

15

Attorney General's opposition to Georgia Superior Court interim review

 

1

16

Georgia Superior Court grants interim review

 

1

17

Lethal Injection CD- Adobe pdf file (approx. 2000 pages)

 

1

18

Lethal injection procedures

 

1

19

Lethal injection open record request

 

box

item

Request box

2

1

Dawson vs. Georgia appellant's brief

 

2

1

Transcript vol. I

 

2

2

Transcript vol. V

 

box

item

Request box

3

1

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 10 sd 1(Joseph Mulligan), 1987 May 15

 

3

2

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 10 sd 2 (Ivon Ray Stanley- July 12, 1984, John Eldon Smith- Dec. 15, 1983, Jerome Bowden- June 25, 1986)

 

3

3

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 11 (Larry Lonchar), 1996 November 14

 

3

4

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 12 (Roosevelt Green- Jan. 9, 1985, Van Solomon- Feb. 20, 1995, Timothy McQuorquodale- Oct. 21, 1987)

 

3

5

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 13 (Timothy McQuorquodale- Oct. 21, 1987 & Henry Willis- May 18, 1989)

 

3

6

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 14 (Christopher Burger- Dec. 7, 1993, William Henry Hance- Mar. 31, 1994, Warren McCleskey- Sept. 25, 1991)

 

3

7

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 15 (Warren McCleskey- Sept. 25, 1991 & Thomas Dean Stevens- June 29, 1993)

 

3

8

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 16 (Ivon Ray Stanley- July 17, 1984, John Eldon Smith- Dec. 15, 1983, Jerome Bowden- June 25, 1986)

 

3

9

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 17 (Van Roosevelt Solomon- Feb. 20, 1985 & John C. Young- Mar. 20, 1985)

 

3

10

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 18 (Alpha Otis Stephens), 1984 December 12

 

3

11

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 19 (Jerome Bowden), 1986 June 25

 

3

12

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 20 (Ellis Wayne Felker), 1996 November 15

 

3

13

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 21 (Richard Tucker- May 22, 1987 & William Boyd Tucker- May 29, 1987)

 

3

14

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 22 (Alpha Otis Stephens), 1984 December 12

 

3

15

Ga. Execution Tapes- Tape 23 (Joseph Mulligan), 1987 May 15