Ann Marie Fitz (born April 5, 1977) is an American criminal defense attorney who often appears as a legal analyst on national cable news programs.
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Fitz, an only child, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but moved with her mom, Deborah DeBow, to Atlanta, 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 and California. She is a former Assistant District Attorney and started her own law firm, The Federal Law Group, in 2007.[1]
Her interest in criminal law began when she served as a juror on a vehicular homicide case while in college. She has handled many high-profile cases and has drawn the local and national spotlight with her legal representation, having been the subject of articles in the Fulton County Daily Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Rolling Stone Magazine, and Wired Magazine,[2] and featured in stories aired on WXIA-TV, WSB-TV and AM 750, as well as on CBS's primetime news magazine 48 Hours Mystery and NBC Nightly News.
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 48 Hours Mystery episodes, Capture the Queen in 2007, and Catch Her If You Can in 2009. 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 March 2010 it was confirmed that Amanda Seyfried had signed-on to play Reed in an upcoming movie based on Reed's life, The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League.
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 dissent noted that because 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 that would remedy the issue with 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.
Fitz took on another difficult case in 2009 defending a Forsyth County, Georgia deputy sergeant who had been framed by the Sheriff’s Office with federal charges for possessing and receiving child porn after he announced that he intended to run against the incumbent Sheriff in the 2008 election. Fitz filed a bombshell Motion for New Trial alleging that crucial evidence had been destroyed and withheld from the defense. The Motion resulted in the termination of the Forsyth County employee responsible for withholding the evidence.
Since 2006 Fitz has served as a legal analyst on various cable television news programs on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN,[3][4] and HLN,[5] and appeared as a regular guest on truTV's In Session, formerly CourtTV, from 2009-2011. She substantially contributed to HLN's coverage of the Conrad Murray trial in 2011.
In addition to national programming, Fitz has appeared as a legal expert in local shows airing on WAGA-TV and AM 640 WGST in Atlanta.
Her opinion has also been cited in various print and online articles, locally[6], nationally[7], and internationally[8].
In 2011, Fitz signed as a contributing author to a new criminal practice guidebook, to be published by Matthew Bender in 2012.