Law

Before Donald Watkins became a global businessman, he established a distinguished, unparalleled career as a world-famous attorney. His firm, Donald V. Watkins, P.C., has enjoyed immense success as one of the most accomplished legal entities in the world.

The following cases provide a thumbnail of some of Watkins’ most significant legal career highlights:

• Clarence Norris: In 1976, Watkins won a full and unconditional pardon from the State of Alabama for Clarence Norris, the last known surviving Scottsboro Boy. The nine “Scottsboro Boys” were falsely accused in 1931 of raping two white girls on a train running through Paint Rock, Alabama. All were arrested, tried and convicted of rape on multiple occasions. They were spared imposition of the death sentence by the U.S. Supreme Court. The pardon issued to Clarence Norris was based upon the “innocence” of the “Scottsboro Boys”, as proclaimed by the State of Alabama’s Pardons and Parole Board. This was the first pardon granted by the State to a person originally sentenced to death that was based solely upon a finding that he was innocent of the charges for which he was convicted.

• The Estate of Bernard Whitehurst v. The City of Montgomery, Alabama, et al.: In December 1975, Watkins represented the Estate of Bernard Whitehurst in a wrongful death case involving the Montgomery Police Department. Whitehurst was fatally shot by Montgomery police officers who initially claimed he was a fleeing felon who shot at police while on the run. Watkins’ investigation revealed that Whitehurst was shot in the back, and that the gun found beside his body was planted by police. The case evolved into a nationally recognized scandal that resulted in the resignations of the City’s Mayor and Police Commissioner, the indictment of three police officers, and the firing or resignation of a dozen others in the Department.

• Allen, et al. v. Alabama State Board of Education: In 1981, Watkins represented a group of black teachers and teacher applicants who challenged the constitutionality of the State’s newly instituted teacher testing program. In 1985, the State settled the case by halting the program for twenty years due to widespread psychometric defects in all of the subject-matter tests. Teacher testing resumed in Alabama, with Watkins’ consent, in 2005.

• The Todd Road Incident: In 1982, an out-of-state black family was mourning the death of a relative in Montgomery when City police officers mistook the Michigan and Ohio mourners’ license plates as a gathering of drug dealers from other states. Unbelievably, police raided the funeral gathering and violence erupted in and around the home. The officers were shot, and the mourners were subsequently arrested and brutalized while in custody. Watkins’ investigation into this matter as a Montgomery City Councilman resulted in criminal charges against the mourners being reduced in some cases and dropped altogether in others.

• SCLC v. The City of Gadsden, Alabama: Beginning in 1978, Watkins filed a series of civil rights lawsuits on Behalf of the SCLC against the City of Gadsden, Alabama seeking to desegregate its fire, police and civil service departments. All of the cases were successful, and resulted in the full integration of City Hall and the City’s fire and police departments.

• Sidney Williams v. The City of Montgomery, Alabama: In 1975, Watkins represented black police corporal, Sidney Williams, who sought a promotion in the Montgomery Police Department to sergeant. His promotion was blocked because the Department was using racially biased promotional tests that had not been validated in accordance with EEOC Guidelines. Watkins won the case and the tests were scrapped. This victory cleared the way for a host of black officers to rise through the ranks of the Department. Williams retired as a major in the Department. Today, Montgomery’s Chief of Police is African-American.

• U.S. v. Richard Arrington: From 1988 to 1992, Watkins successfully represented Richard Arrington, Jr., Birmingham’s first black mayor, in his fight against federal prosecutors in Birmingham who sought to make Arrington a criminal defendant in an ongoing public corruption and bribery case. In 1991, prosecutors named Arrington an un-indicted co-conspirator in the fraud trial of another individual. In 1992, the government cleared Arrington of all allegations of wrongdoing, and issued the first-ever public apology to a public official for smearing his name.

• U.S. v. U.W. Clemon: In 1996, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles formally notified U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of their intent to indict him on various fraud related charges arising from his sister’s operation of a non-profit school in Los Angeles. Watkins represented the lead political group responsible for Judge Clemon’s appointment to the federal bench in 1980, and immediately launched an investigation into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the case. The investigation produced a comprehensive report to the U.S. Attorney General on the prosecutorial misconduct. Based upon this report, the Department of Justice terminated the criminal investigation of Judge Clemon with no charges filed.

• U.S. v. Richard Scrushy: In 2003, Watkins represented Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth, who was originally indicted on 85 felony counts of Sarbanes Oxley and related accounting fraud charges, and was facing 650 years in prison. Scrushy was the first CEO in the nation charged with violating Sarbanes Oxley. The case was featured on 60 Minutes. In 2005, Scrushy walked out of the federal courthouse in Birmingham a free man. Watkins defeated prosecutors on all charges in Scrushy’s case. No criminal defendant before or since has defeated 85 felony charges in a single case.