Judges' Comments
	"The writer took on a cause, went out and did original reporting, then wrote her findings compellingly, personalizing them for maximum impact."
	When Justice is a Crime

Since she practiced law for many years, Martha Ezzard has keen insights into the criminal justice system and the rights the U.S. Constitution bestows on all persons -- native born and immigrant, rich and poor, black, white and brown. So she was distressed to learn how shabbily the state of Georgia treats criminal defendants without enough money to hire a private attorney.

In 2001, she traveled all over Georgia to document the harsh fates doled out to several poor defendants charged with crimes from shoplifting to murder. In a remarkable editorial series in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called "When justice is a crime," she profiled an indigent defense system that treats the poor as if they are automatically guilty, assigns them overworked or inept attorneys and handicaps their efforts to mount a defense.

She found a poor woman who spent months in jail for a crime she did not commit; incompetent and unconcerned lawyers who didn’t try to help their clients; and arrogant judges who preside over their circuits as if they are feudal lords.

After decades in which Georgia’s system of indigent defense has been ignored, Ezzard’s series has provoked controversy among judges and lawyers; inspired action by a new state Commission on Indigent Defense; and sparked at least one lawsuit that seeks to change the system.

Ezzard joined The Atlanta Journal as an editorial associate in 1993. She is a lawyer and former Colorado state senator.

A native of Atlanta, she graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism in 1968, and from the University of Denver College of Law in 1982.