Napoleon Beazley Defender Award 2008: Andrew J. Meissen
Each year as part of its annual Zealous Advocacy Conference, the Southwest Juvenile Defender Center awards the Napoleon Beazley Defender Award to a graduating law student who is committed to working on behalf of the defense of children in our region: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Napoleon Beazley was executed in Texas for a crime he committed when he was seventeen. He believed that the death penalty was morally wrong and that children deserved second chances.
This year the award was given to Andrew J. Meissen, a graduating student at the University of Houston Law Center. Andrew was a teacher in Texas and Illinois prior to coming to law school, starting in the Teach for America program. Even during law school, Andrew continued to find ways to teach, starting a Street Law Program at a local middle school, enlisting other law students to teach 7th and 8th-graders basic legal concepts concerning juvenile justice, constitutional rights and consumer issues.
Following graduation, Andrew is headed to the Office of the Public Defender in Maricopa County, Arizona where he hopes to continue to work with children in the Juvenile Division.
Pictured above from left to right: Prof. Ellen Marrus, Andy's wife Giselle, Andy Meissen, and previous award winners Jontae Chapman and Dustin Rynders.
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