For law professor Melissa D. Redmon, the lure of criminal prosecution is the ability to approach the pursuit of justice with compassion and empathy.
“I think the objection that many people have to the field is the perspective that all prosecutors want to do is put people in jail or that prosecutors are more concerned about their conviction rates than the pursuit of justice, but it is really the justice part of it that drew me,” said Redmon, who serves as a clinical associate professor and as the director of the Prosecutorial Justice Program at UGA.
What the pursuit of justice means can vary depending on the respondent, but Redmon makes sure her approach maintains the humanity and dignity of all parties involved in any encounter with the criminal legal system.
Perhaps the most overlooked party in these cases would be the victims.
“The thing with prosecution is you’re encountering people concerning what was likely the worst day of their lives. So, you have to take into account the trauma that that’s caused to the victim, how they may be reacting to that trauma and what you need to do to not retraumatize them as their case makes its way through the criminal justice system,” Redmon explained.
One of the chief difficulties, Redmon pointed out, is that victims do not always react to their situations in the way outside observers might expect, which can cause people to make inaccurate assumptions and jump to conclusions regarding someone’s credibility.
As a former prosecutor, it was Redmon’s job to consider not just the victim’s statement, but also all of the evidence available in a given case to determine the truth and then communicate with the victim about what a just outcome might be.
“It is understanding the effects of what happened, making sure that the victim feels heard,” Redmon said. This is especially true when the victims may not always agree with the decisions being made, considering that the prosecutor’s job is really to represent the state in legal proceedings.
Similarly, Redmon said it is also vitally important for prosecutors to remember the humanity of the accused.
Without addressing the underlying causes of crime, the criminal justice system can only go so far in preventing future problems.
“It can start with their environment, their, you know, socioeconomic status, lack of access to jobs, to education,” Redmon said. “So it’s not just a person committed this act. It’s getting to the underlying root cause to see if we can prevent them from re-offending.”
Redmon, who is originally from Columbus, Georgia, earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Mercer University before earning her Juris Doctor from Michigan State University.
She said the presence of family in Detroit was part of what originally caused her to further her education up North, but there was one significant factor that brought her home to Georgia when her law degree was in hand.
“It was the cold,” Redmon laughingly acknowledged. “It was not just that. It was cold for so much of the year, but it was [also] just gray.”
Redmon escaped the significantly colder Michigan winters, coming back home to Georgia. She then spent nearly two decades in public service with indigent defense and district attorney offices in Fulton and Clayton counties.
One of her favorite parts of being a prosecutor was mentoring the younger lawyers in her office and helping them grow as prosecutors. As such, moving to the university was a natural shift for Redmon.
When an opening at the law school’s Prosecutorial Justice Program caught her eye in 2018, Redmon said it felt like a sign that she needed to make the change.
“I think working with students who want to be prosecutors is probably the only job I would have left prosecution for,” Redmon explained, noting the crucial need for students who care about public interest and using their legal skills to improve the world around them. “I think there’s something very altruistic about that desire.”
Through the externship program, Redmon encourages her students to discover their own path as prosecutors.
“My purpose is to get students to think about what being a minister of justice as a prosecutor means for them: to explore their visions of right and wrong, to explore their understanding of what cases warrant incarceration, what cases don’t and why they reached those conclusions,” Redmon said.
Outside of academics, Redmon enjoys reading a wide array of books from authors like James Baldwin, George Orwell and Percival Everett. Perhaps most fitting for a former prosecutor, her latest read is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” Redmon has also enjoyed getting to know the Athens community with her partner, Richard, and their 4-year old daughter, Karrington.