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Stephen B. Bright has represented poor people in the legal system for more than 40 years, as a legal services attorney, public defender, and an attorney with a public interest law project, and taught at law schools for more than 20 years. Subjects of his litigation, teaching, and writing include legal representation for poor people accused of crimes, capital punishment, human rights violations in prisons and jails, and judicial independence. He has argued capital cases before juries in three states, in state and federal appellate courts, and in three cases before the United States Supreme Court.  He joined the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta as its director in 1982 and served in that capacity for 23 years before becoming its president and senior counsel in 2006, the positions he holds today. Bright has taught at Yale Law School since 1993, and at a number of other law schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, Emory and Georgia. The Daily Report, Georgia’s legal newspaper, named him “Newsmaker of the Year” in 2003 for his contribution to bringing about creation of a public defender system in Georgia.  He received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 1998.