Jessie Morris - 2021 SCBA Attorney of the Year

Jessie Morris

2021 SCBA ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR

By Barbara Takei

Barbara Takei, Public Historian

In 2021, for the first time in the history of the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Attorney of the Year award, the organization is giving the award to a Public Defender, honoring Jessie Morris, Jr. with the Association’s highest recognition.

An Assistant Public Defender in the Sacramento County Public Defender’s office since 2008, previously Morris served as the Chief Deputy Public Defender in Yolo County’s Public Defender’s Office, and in earlier decades maintained a criminal defense practice.

Morris is recognized for the innovative social justice organizing work he has done over the past several years and over a lifetime, to empower attorneys of color and address racial, ethnic, religious, gender and other biases within the legal profession.

One of his most meaningful projects, says Morris, has been his work helping those suffering from lack of housing. His expungement work takes him to sites like Loaves and Fishes “where those without housing can gather for necessities like a meal, and clothing, and emergency shelter,” he says. “It’s the ideal place to meet people who could use help expunging records and to help them move on in their lives.”

Over the past four decades in the U.S., one in three people has acquired some type of criminal record, criminal statistics and ACLU reports show. Typically, these are minor non-violent crimes that will appear on a routine background check, that disparately and negatively impact black Americans and other people of color — creating barriers to jobs, housing, education — essentially creating a life sentence of poverty for the individual

Jessie Morris in the Sacramento Bee, June 9, 2020. Public Defender’s rally at the Sacramento County Courthouse calling for justice reform. “Stop putting a knee on our clients’ necks!”

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, praised Morris, “While I recognize that the Sacramento area is rich with worthy and accomplished attorneys, Jessie stands above all in my view. He has been a mentor, confidant, strategist, expert consultant, sounding board, adviser and kind and wise friend.”

and his or her family.

Expungements of criminal arrest and probation records address a pernicious societal problem – where economic opportunity is impeded by decades of disinvestment in communities of color, while vast resources are invested in mass criminalization programs like the War on Drugs, that disproportionately target people of color.

The idea for a model expungement clinic began with a criminal law class Morris taught for years at American River College (ARC), teaching students how to interpret Record of Arrest and Prosecution (RAP) sheets, and how to complete expungement paperwork. At a conference discussion where Morris and Asha Wilkerson learned about organizing expungement clinics, Wilkerson, who chairs the Legal Studies Department at American River College, remembers both spontaneously agreeing that they would develop such a clinic at ARC.

“In just 5 short weeks, our first criminal record expungement clinic went off without a hitch,” Wilkerson reported. The ARC expungement clinic grew and became a regular part of ARC’s programming. At the time, there was only one other ABA-accredited paralegal program in California running an expungement clinic as part of its curriculum. “People would line up for the monthly clinics,” Morris remembered, “even in the rain and cold. That’s how great the demand was.”

ARC’s clinic expanded its outreach thanks to Morris’ engaging volunteer attorneys from the Wiley Manual Bar Association, the Cruz Reynoso Bar Association, and the Asian/Pacific Bar Association, and provided assistance to hundreds of individuals stigmatized by criminal convictions. ARC’s clinics developed into a model paralegal training program serving over 300 individuals, that operated for 12 months before the pandemic quarantine.

This year the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office also expanded its efforts to provide expungement assistance to clients thanks to Acting Chief Assistant Public Defender, Tiffanie Synnott, who secured a State Homeless Emergency Aid Program grant that provides expungement funding. A grassroots Sacramento coalition working to clear records, composed of the NAACP, Decarcerate Sacramento, SacACT and Justice 2 Jobs, persuaded the Sacramento Board of Supervisors in June 2021 to fund two extra staff positions in the Public Defender’s Office.

Morris worked with the coalition partners and praised their successful advocacy. “Expungement has helped remove significant barriers to the goal of economic opportunity,” he said, “offering many who lack work and housing the possibility of having a place to call home and to provide for self and family.”

Morris’ advocacy is a catalyst that is helping make this happen, said Mark Slaughter, from the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office. “Jessie’s coordination with community organization and grant funded programs has brought desperately needed organized services to underserved communities in Sacramento County.”

Morris’ most recent work reprises the collaboration that Jerry Chong, Luis Cespedes (current Governor’s Judicial Appointments Secretary), and Reynard Shepard (ret. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge) initiated over 33 years ago that led to the creation of the Sacramento Unity Bar Association. As allies, the Wiley Manuel Bar Association, the Asian Bar

Jessie Morris and Asha Wilkerson, August 22, 2019. Photo courtesy of Asha Wilkerson.

“Jessie is someone who has never sought recognition for any of his good deeds. Rather, he chooses to remain in the background, gently guiding people like me forward, to make positive changes in our community. Jessie Morris has touched countless lives, making our beloved Sacramento Community more meaningfully diverse, inclusive, tolerant, and empathetic.” Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shama Mesiwala.

“When I became a lawyer in the early 70’s, my ideal was to try to make the world a better place; I doubt that I have done that. However, I’m proud that I have a friend who has done exactly that for the last forty years.” California Fifth District Court of Appeal Judge Tim Buckley, retired.

Association and the former La Raza Bar Association (renamed the Cruz Reynoso Bar Association), approached the Governor’s Office

to advocate for greater diversity on the Sacramento bench, and specifically to remedy the absence of any Asian Pacific Islander judges in Sacramento County.

The Sacramento Unity Bar has since grown to include Women Lawyers of Sacramento, SacLegal (Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ Bar Association), Leonard M. Friedman Bar Association and the South Asian Bar Association of Sacramento, and continues to focus attention on mentoring, and supporting and strategizing efforts to diversify the profession. The Unity Bar has served as a model to promote greater diversity and has been replicated throughout California and nationally, most recently in San Joaquin and Fresno counties.

Over the past year, Morris worked with the three Sacramento Unity Founders to outreach, organize and promote legal diversity within central California. He traveled and met with Fresno attorney leaders, and in May those efforts bore fruit with the Central Valley Unity Bar holding its formation meeting in Fresno. In Stockton, thanks to the leadership of San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Barbara Kronlund, the San Joaquin County Bar Association added the William Murray Unity Bar as a section.

After graduating from McGeorge School of Law, Morris began his legal career in 1978 at the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office. There, he met a kindred spirit, Jerry Chong, another of Sacramento’s long-time civil rights and criminal defense lawyers who describes Morris, as do many others, as an “unsung hero.”

“Those of us who have worked with Jessie know how he shuns publicity, prefers to work behind the scenes and gives credit to others for his work and success,” Chong said, describing Morris’ effectiveness as an advocate. His peers note Morris’ audacity and leadership in calling for bail reform and criminal justice reform, and to end the bias, inequity and abuse that disproportionately affects people of color and poor people.

As an activist attorney, finding ways to foster diversity on the bench and within the profession has been a career-long concern for Morris. He has applied his legal skills to teach others and to mitigate harm to people of color and those who are poor and underserved.

After the Katrina disaster, Morris went to New Orleans and spent weeks advocating for thousands of prisoners whose records were lost or destroyed, who were detained under miserable and inhumane conditions.

In the wake of the 9/11 federal persecutions of Muslim Americans and multiple false arrests and incarcerations, Morris led a local effort to enlist volunteer criminal defense attorneys to protect the civil rights of Muslim Americans during the FBI dragnet that terrorized the region’s Muslim community. Pro bono attorneys assisted the

Jessie Morris with personal hero, Bryan Stevenson, February 14, 2015, Monterey, CA. Stevenson is the legendary founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. Stevenson’s work has won national acclaim, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. His book, “Just Mercy” (2014) was adapted into a feature film of the same title. Photo courtesy of Jessie Morris Betty Rae Morris (deceased January 17, 2021) and her spouse of 44 years, Jessie Morris. Photo taken at Apple Hill, October 25, 2009. Photo courtesy of Sunny Paley.

“He has served as a mentor, friend and confidant to many. He has helped countless lawyers advance their careers both in and out of the public defender’s office. He has been a champion for diversity in our profession.” Sacramento County Superior Court Judge

David DeAlba.

“Whether it is leading an office as a Chief Deputy or walking a law student through their first contested litigation, he fights for clients’ lives and social justice. He does this while propelling the careers of those around him and engaging the community he services, never taking credit for any of his efforts. Jessie truly exemplifies the best qualities of the legal profession, making all that come in contact with him better for it.” Amber Poston, an attorney who interned at the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office during Morris’ tenure.

Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers (BAAML) representing individuals undergoing FBI interviews, to ensure their due process rights were protected. Morris then wrote and submitted the nomination that led the State Bar Board of Governors to award BAAML with a 2006 President’s Pro Bono Service Award, an effort to spotlight and validate the importance of BAAML’s effort to protect Muslim American civil rights.

Morris has received many honors and recognition for his work and community service. Among the highlights: recognition as the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Humanitarian of the Year; awarded the President’s Pro Bono Award by the State Bar of California Board of Governors; recipient of the President’s Award and the Unity Award from both the Wiley Manuel Bar Association and the Sacramento Asian Bar Association; and honored with the Trailblazer award, the highest honor given by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

That selfless desire to work behind the scenes, with the goal of making sure justice gets done rather than getting or taking credit was repeated by Morris’ friends and supporters. Former interns, law students and support staff describe his unselfish sharing of expert guidance, his soft-spoken and kind manner, and his integrity and civility, calling him a “super-hero.” Powerful members of the California judicial community have relied on and trusted Morris’ judgment and instincts, and offer high praise for a career spent addressing the needs of the least fortunate.

The words of Martin Jenkins, Associate Justice Supreme Court of California, aptly describe what makes Morris such a rare and special attorney. “Jessie has taken the road less traveled — he has decided to use his considerable skills in the service of the marginalized and less fortunate in our society,” Jenkins wrote. “His work as an advocate and active member of the legal community has made a real difference in the lives of indigent defendants and improved the quality of justice in our courts.”