Chief Justice Harold Melton, Supreme Court of Georgia. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Add Chief Justice Harold Melton of the Supreme Court of Georgia to the list of supporters of protests against police brutality.

In the wake of an extraordinary open letter issued by the nine justices of the Washington Supreme Court on Thursday urging the legal community to confront racial injustices, the Daily Report asked a spokeswoman for the Georgia high court if any similar message was being considered.

Late Friday, the Daily Report received the following statement that Melton shared with staff of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Melton said: "The prominence and horror of the George Floyd murder does point to continued divisiveness. But, at the same time, it also points to unparalleled unity as exhibited by unprecedented numbers of people of all ages, races, and walks of life who are: (1) expressing outrage at the continued unnecessary violence by some police officers against African Americans; and (2) asking 'What can we do to make things better going forward?'"

"We are grieving right now," continued Melton, who was appointed to the court by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue and elected chief by his colleagues in 2018. "And that is proper and healthy. I don't know if we have ever grieved like this before. But by grieving together, coming together, and supporting one another through all of this, I know that we will come out of this better than we were before. And for that I am encouraged."

On Thursday, the high court 2,700 miles away in Olympia, Washington, issued a letter that stated in part: "Recent events have brought to the forefront of our collective consciousness a painful fact that is, for too many of our citizens, common knowledge: the injustices faced by black Americans are not relics of the past."

The justices added in their letter. "We continue to see racialized policing and the overrepresentation of black Americans in every stage of our criminal and juvenile justice systems. Our institutions remain affected by the vestiges of slavery: Jim Crow laws that were never dismantled and racist court decisions that were never disavowed."

The court—Chief Justice Debra Stephens and Justices Charles Johnson, Barbara Madsen, Susan Owens, Steven González, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, Mary Yu, Raquel Montoya-Lewis and G. Helen Whitener—said "the legal community must recognize that we all bear responsibility for this on-going injustice, and that we are capable of taking steps to address it, if only we have the courage and the will."

The letter continued: "As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing black lives. This very court once held that a cemetery could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their infant. We cannot undo this wrong—but we can recognize our ability to do better in the future. We can develop a greater awareness of our own conscious and unconscious biases in order to make just decisions in individual cases, and we can administer justice and support court rules in a way that brings greater racial justice to our system as a whole."

The Washington Supreme Court has been heralded for its diversity. The justices' letter, a rare public statement from a court about current events, rocketed across social media Thursday night, as lawyers weighed the implications of the court's declaration, which comes amid national outrage over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minnesota. An officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for eight minutes while he was handcuffed and on the ground has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers also face criminal charges for their alleged roles in Floyd's death.

Some lawyers commenting on social media about the Washington justices' letter expressed skepticism or concern that any foundational change in the law could occur, given the powerful legal barriers in state and federal court that often provide a shield to law enforcement officers in civil suits alleging misconduct.

The U.S. Supreme Court has a number of petitions under review that challenge "qualified immunity" accorded to law enforcement. The doctrine broadly protects law enforcement from liability except in those instances where an officer's action violated a "clearly established" constitutional or statutory right.

"We have not hesitated to summarily reverse courts for wrongly denying officers the protection of qualified immunity in cases involving the use of force," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a 2017 case. "But we rarely intervene where courts wrongly afford officers the benefit of qualified immunity in these same cases."

The Washington justices nodded to precedent in their letter, stating: "Too often in the legal profession, we feel bound by tradition and the way things have 'always' been. We must remember that even the most venerable precedent must be struck down when it is incorrect and harmful. The systemic oppression of black Americans is not merely incorrect and harmful; it is shameful and deadly."

The justices' letter concluded with these lines: "We go by the title of 'Justice' and we reaffirm our deepest level of commitment to achieving justice by ending racism. We urge you to join us in these efforts. This is our moral imperative."

Read more:

'This Is a Moment': Civil Rights Lawyers Confront Pandemic and Police Violence Inequities

Trump, Barr Sued for Use of Force Against Lafayette Square Demonstrators

At Supreme Court, Sotomayor Is Leading Voice Against Alleged Police Abuses

'It Could Have Been Me': Black Attorneys Reflect on George Floyd's Death