In the News

Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP is representing Avid Bookshop in a First Amendment lawsuit against Gwinnett County Jail’s mail policy that prevents the independent bookstore from sending books to inmates, highlighting the legal challenges in fighting for incarcerated people’s right to read.

After a wrongful arrest in a 2018 double murder case, the Atlanta City Council agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit for the man who spent over a year in jail. Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP represented the wrongfully accused man, with one of the firm’s attorneys commenting on how police “shoehorned everything” to implicate someone they knew was innocent.

The firm secured a significant victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Jarrard v. Sheriff of Polk County) in partnership with Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic and attorney Gerald Weber, defending a minister’s rights to access a jail volunteer program.

Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP represented Keith Sylvester, who was wrongfully accused of murdering his mother and stepfather and spent 15 months in jail before being exonerated, securing a $1.5 million settlement from the City of Atlanta while continuing to advocate for accountability from the police department.

Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP secured a $1.5 million settlement from the city of Atlanta for Keith Sylvester, who spent 15 months in jail after being wrongfully accused of murdering his parents, with the case being revived by a federal appeals court that found the detective had omitted key exonerating evidence.

Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP received the “2024 Justice Ally of the Year Award” at SCHR’s Justice Taking Root Benefit Reception, recognizing Zack Greenamyre and Samantha Funt for their civil rights practice representing clients who experienced unlawful law enforcement violence and unjustified arrests.

Attorney Zack Greenamyre is serving as lead counsel for Avid Bookshop in a federal lawsuit challenging the Gwinnett County Jail’s mail policy that prevents the independent bookstore from sending books to inmates, arguing the policy violates First Amendment rights.

The state of Georgia agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a prisoner who was left in a smoke-filled cell for hours after setting his mattress on fire. Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP was part of the legal team that secured what is believed to be the largest settlement ever paid by the state for a prison inmate’s death.

A federal jury awarded $1.5 million to a Black transgender woman who was falsely arrested on cocaine trafficking charges and spent nearly six months in jail after a field test showed no evidence of drugs. Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP was part of the legal team that secured this significant civil rights verdict challenging discriminatory police practices.

A federal jury awarded Ju’Zema Goldring a $1.5 million verdict against the Atlanta police officer who arrested her. Officer Vladimir Henry was one of two APD officers who stopped Goldring for jaywalking near 3rd and Piedmont in October 2015.