The Mississippi Bar Association

Friday, September 3rd, 2010 | 07:32 PM

The Mississippi Bar Association - Lawday

2011 Law Day Art Contest

The Legacy of John Adams, From Boston to Guantanamo

Each year the legal community and people across the nation celebrate Law Day USA on May 1. Law Day provides an opportunity for all Americans to celebrate and learn about our country’s heritage of liberty under law and how the rule of law makes our democracy better.

The Mississippi Bar’s 2011 Law Day theme is "The Legacy of John Adams, from Boston to Guantanamo."

Resistance leader and patriot, advocate and diplomat, constitutional theorist and political activist, John Adams became our nation's first lawyer-president in 1797. Just five years before the American Revolutionary War began, he represented the British officer and soldiers charged with firing into a crowd of protestors and killing five civilians in the "Boston Massacre."

Already a prominent leader in the American colonial resistance to British parliamentary authority, Adams agreed to take on the cases and ably defended the accused at trial. His role in the 1770 Boston Massacre trials has come to be seen as a lawyerly exemplar of adherence to the rule of law and defense of the rights of the accused, even in cases when advocates may represent unpopular clients and become involved in matters that generate public controversy.

Although each is unique in circumstance and significance, there have been other such noteworthy cases in American history. These cases range from Adams and the Boston Massacre trial to the 1846 "insanity" defense of William Freeman by William Seward, later Lincoln's Secretary of State, to Sigmund Ziesler's and William Perkins Black's 1886 representation of the Haymarket 8 accused of killing a Chicago police officer (marking its 125th anniversary in 2011) to Samuel Leibowitz's 1930s defense of nine black Alabama teenagers, the Scottsboro Boys, accused of rape to the representation by Michael Tigar and Brian Hermanson of Terry Nichols in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case to contemporary efforts by lawyers to represent Guantanamo detainees in the global war on terrorism. It is important to recognize that the passage of time can bring historical and legal perspective to passions of the day.

The 2011 Law Day theme provides us with an opportunity to assess and celebrate the legacy of John Adams, explore the historical and contemporary role of lawyers in defending the rights of the accused, and renew our understanding of and appreciation for the fundamental principle of the rule of law.

Check back often in the coming months for updates and resources for Law Day 2011, and for the 2011 Law Day Art Contest Brochure!

Contest Rules:

· 1st –3rd place awards will be presented to winners at each school. 1st place winners from each school will be judged for statewide awards.

· The contest will be judged at each grade level (K – 12).

· Statewide winners will be presented with award certificates and artwork will be displayed in the Capitol during Law Week, May 2-6, and also presented in the summer issue of The Mississippi Lawyer magazine.

· Artwork must be submitted on an 11” x 14” poster board (1/4 of a standard-sized poster board) and postmarked by Monday, April 12, 2011.

· Artwork must be student’s own work; no tracings, no glitter, no coloring pages from internet or anywhere else where outlines are already drawn.

· Artwork must reflect the theme – "The Legacy of John Adams, from Boston to Guantanamo."

· All mediums accepted. Creativity is awarded.

· Each 11” x 14” poster must have the label from the flyer (which can be enlarged) affixed to the back of the artwork that provides the required judging and contact information.

For more information, please contact Krissa Dobbins Easley at (601) 355-7548 or email keasley@msbar.org

Stay tuned for the download of the 2011 Law Day Art Contest Flyer.

Click here for the 2009 Statewide Winners