Ann Fitz

Background

Ann Fitz, an only child, was born in Bay Village, Ohio, but moved to Marietta, Georgia in 1987 at the age of 10. She graduated from George Walton Comprehensive High School in 1995, received her bachelor's degree from Furman University in 1999, where she double-majored in English and Communications, and earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in 2003. She is licensed to practice law in Georgia, New York, California, and Ohio. She has over a decade of nationwide legal experience in the criminal arena. She is a former prosecutor, and started her own firm in 2007. In addition to her private practice she has served as a federal Panel Attorney under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) for the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta) and the Central District of California (Los Angeles). In private criminal defense practice, she has handled numerous high-profile organized crime, white collar crime, Internet-based crime and other criminal cases. She was selected as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2013, 2014, and 2016, an honor bestowed upon less than 2% of all lawyers under the age of 40, and named a "Top 10 Under 40" criminal lawyer by the National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys in 2014. She has drawn the local and national spotlight with her distinctive legal representation, having been the subject of articles in the Fulton County Daily Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rolling Stone Magazine and Wired Magazine, and featured in stories aired on WXIA-TV, WSB-TV and AM 750, as well as 48 Hours Mystery and NBC Nightly News.

Notable Cases

Perhaps the best-known case Fitz has defended was the federal identity fraud case against Esther Elizabeth Reed, who had conned her way into Harvard and Columbia University under the stolen identity of a missing woman named Brooke Henson from Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Reed's exploits drew the national spotlight when she was listed as a United States Secret Service's 10 most wanted fugitive and became the subject of articles in the New York Post and Rolling Stone Magazine, as well as being featured on America's Most Wanted and two episodes of 48 Hours Mystery. Fitz argued that Reed's behavior was a result of mental illness caused by a strict family upbringing. Reed was facing a potential 47 years in prison, entered a plea of guilty to 4 felony counts and received a sentence of 51 months.

In 2009, Fitz launched a constitutional challenge against a provision in Georgia's sex offender registration law mirroring the Adam Walsh Act, which required that an individual convicted of kidnapping or false imprisonment of a minor without an underlying sexual offense is subject to lifetime registration as a convicted sex offender. On March 15, 2010, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law in a 5-2 decision, based on a United States Department of Justice report finding that 46% of all kidnapping and false imprisonment of minor cases involve some type of sexual offense; however, the dissenting jurists noted that as registration limits where offenders may live, work and congregate, it "is not a requirement that should be imposed cavalierly", and a statutory scheme that has an "error rate of over 50% is clearly not rational". On March 16, 2010, Georgia's House passed a bill to remedy the issue by a vote of 165-1. The bill was subsequently passed unanimously by the Senate and signed into law by Governor Sonny Perdue on May 20, 2010.

Television, Radio and Print

From June 2006 to November 2011, Fitz served as a legal analyst on various cable television news programs on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, and HLN, and appeared as a regular guest on truTV's In Session, formerly CourtTV (from 2009-2011). In addition to discussing the ins-and-outs of headline legal stories in this capacity, she has also covered many high-profile legal cases, including the Duke Lacrosse case; the Phil Spector murder trial; the Warren Jeffs polygamy trial; the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial; and, most substantially, the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray in 2011.

In addition to national programming, Fitz has appeared as a legal expert on local television and radio shows airing on WAGA-TV and AM 640 WGST in Atlanta. Her opinions have been cited in various print and online articles, locally, nationally, and internationally.