2011 Award Honorees’ Biographies

Mike Farrell

Chair of the Board of Death Penalty Focus, Mike Farrell is also spokesperson for Concern America, an international refugee aid and development organization, Co-Chair Emeritus of the California Committee of Human Rights Watch and, occasionally, a Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Known to millions as “B.J. Hunnicutt” of television’s historic “M*A*S*H” and from NBC-TV’s “Providence,” he is also the producer of Universal Pictures’ hit “Patch Adams,”

A refugee aid and human rights activist for 30 years, Farrell first traveled to the Thai/Cambodian border in 1980. In the following decade he took part in aid missions and human rights delegations to El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras; after one such trip he represented the delegation in testimony before the U.S. Congress. In the same period, delegations took him to the then U.S.S.R., Paraguay and Chile.

In 1988 he traveled to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel, exploring opportunities for peace in the Middle East. Returning to the Middle East in 1990, he followed that visit with a stop in Prague as part of a team of election observers for the first free post-Cold War elections in Czechoslovakia. A third trip to the Middle East in ‘92 focused on medical programs for children. Later that year, on behalf of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, he went to Somalia and Bosnia. In 1995, again with the UNHCR, he returned to Africa, this time to Rwanda, Zaire and Tanzania.

In the late ‘90s, with Human Rights Watch, he took part in a mission to the U.S./Mexico border areas investigating claims of abuse against the undocumented by U.S. Border Patrol agents. In 1999, again with an HRW investigator, he toured and interviewed prisoners at McAlester State Prison in Oklahoma, with special attention to its segregation and death row facility, the infamous H-Unit.

At the invitation of the Government of Mexico, in April of 2000 he testified as a representative of Death Penalty Focus before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in a case dealing with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and its application to non-citizens on death row in the United States.

In 2002 and again in 2004 he was part of delegations from the Center for International Policy – of which he is a board member – supporting efforts to combat illegal logging in Central America, with a focus on Honduras and Nicaragua.

A life-long opponent of the death penalty and an advocate of prison reform, Farrell has visited prisons and been involved in death cases across the U.S. for over a quarter of a century.

He is the author of two books: “Just Call Me Mike; a Journey to Actor and Activist;” and “Of Mule and Man.”

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John Whiteside

An All American Swimmer in high school, he received a swimming scholarship to attend the University of Alabama. After graduation in 1974, he entered Naval Aviation flight training and flew the F-4 Phantom and A-4 Skyhawk aircraft for the Marines. Upon release from active duty, he entered the airline industry and flew 25 years for an international airline, obtaining the rank of Captain. He has flown over 23,000 accident free hours and transported over one million people safely to their destinations.

In 1990, he was recalled to active duty in the Air National Guard where he flew the F-16 Falcon. He flew 52 missions with Operation Desert Storm and was awarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in combat. He retired from the Guard after 20 years, obtaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Today, Whiteside is one of only a few military aviators to possess both Senior Command Air Force wings and aircraft carrier qualified Naval Aviator wings. He retired from the airline industry in 2003.

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Elizabeth Sholes

Elizabeth Sholes is Director of Public Policy for California Council of Churches and California Council of Churches IMPACT. She has been with the Council and IMPACT since early 2002 working to educate members on major issues and advocating for them in the state legislature and in the nation’s capital. Her work challenging the religious right came in large measure due to its overwhelming influence over state and national public policy that too often undermined equality for those in need, human rights, and freedom of thought, faith, and speech. Witnessing the power of ultra-conservative religious views to undermine justice, she encouraged her IMPACT board to support the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and to provide a Christian voice in alliance with their goals.

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Robert V. Eye

Bob is from Goodland, Kansas, where he graduated from high school in 1970. He received a Bachelor of Science (1974) and Master of Arts (1976) in Political Science from Kansas State University. Bob received his law degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1980.

Bob’s practice experience includes serving as a Kansas Assistant Attorney General (1982-84), General Counsel for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (1991-93), and practiced with Irigonegaray and Associates (1993-2008).

Bob’s extensive experience includes the areas of criminal defense, civil rights, employment law, environmental law, and appellate practice.

Bob has been counsel for numerous public interest groups, such as the Sierra Club, units of government and individuals in wide-ranging environmental matters including nuclear and coal plant litigation, wetland protection, water quality and waste management.

Bob is on the Board of Directors of the Kansas and Western Missouri ACLU, and is a member of the Kansas Association for Justice, American Bar Association (ABA), the Kansas Bar Association (KBA), and the Topeka Bar Association (TBA).

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Pedro L. Irigonegaray

Pedro L. Irigonegaray was born in Havana, Cuba, May 11, 1948, and at the age of 12 immigrated to the United States with his mother as political refugees. Weeks later, his two sisters, ages 3 and 7, came separately, followed by his father in March 1961. Pedro became a naturalized United States citizen in 1973.

He was raised in Topeka, Kansas, and graduated from high school at Kemper Military Academy in Boonville, Missouri, in 1966. Pedro also earned an Associate of Arts Degree from Kemper in 1968, a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and Economics from Washburn University in 1970, and his Juris Doctor from Washburn University School of Law in 1973.

Upon graduation from law school and successful completion of the Kansas and Florida bar examinations, Pedro began the private practice of law. Today, Pedro is a litigation lawyer specializing in tort litigation (including medical malpractice and product liability, and intellectual property, Constitutional, environmental, regulatory, gaming, contract, and criminal law. His firm, Irigonegaray & Associates, is headquartered in Topeka.

Pedro is also admitted to practice before the United States Army Court of Military Review, the United States Court of Military Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Pedro has also lectured at Washburn University School of Law, has served as a Special Counsel to the late Gov. Joan Finney of Kansas, and as Counsel for the Majority of the Kansas Science Standards Writing Committee of the Kansas Department of Education’s Evolution/Intelligent Design Hearings.

Additionally, he is a former president of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association, and a former member of the Topeka Race Relations Council and the Kansas Hispanic Affairs Committee.

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Randal G. Mathis

Randal Mathis is a 1976 graduate of Texas Tech University, where he was President of Pi Sigma Alpha and taught Introductory Government. He is a 1980 graduate of the Tech Law School, where his Mock Trial Team placed first for two years and represented the school in national competition. He is a member of the Pi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity, and was Student Editor of the 1980 Supplement to the Texas State Bar Appellate Practice Manual.

Between 1975 and 1980, Mr. Mathis clerked for the Lubbock firm Key, Carr, Evans & Fouts, where he worked primarily for Professor Donald Hunt of the Law School and prominent West Texas trial attorney Warlick Carr.

After graduation, Mr. Mathis joined the Dallas firm of Strasburger & Price, became a partner in 1986, served on the Management Committee, and continued to work until 1995.

After five years of practice with Munsch, Hardt, Kopf & Harr, where he was an equity shareholder and a Director of Business Development, he and appellate specialist Mark Donheiser formed Mathis & Donheiser, P.C.

Mr. Mathis’ practice is exclusively centered on litigation on a wide range of subject matters.

Over the past 30 years, a number of his cases and trials have drawn local and national attention, beginning with firearms industry litigation in 1984, the “Quedlinburg Treasury” case (art work allegedly stolen during World War II) in the early 1990s, and the various Catholic Church abuse cases, the first of which was tried in 1997.

He has also obtained a reputation of note representing attorneys and judges in proceedings before the State Bar and the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission.

He and his firm are known for accepting and trying difficult and often controversial cases, and over the years have established an impressive record of success in both the trial and appellate courts.

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Caroline N. Mitchell

Caroline Mitchell litigates complex commercial disputes with a focus on defending corporations against claims related to events in foreign countries, as well as to RICO, the Alien Tort Statute, antitrust, fraud, and unfair competition law. She also defends clients in class actions and parens patriae actions and advises them on trademark and regulatory disputes.

Caroline served on the trial team in Bowoto v. Chevron Corporation, which was recognized by various legal publications as the defense verdict of 2008 in California. As part of that case, Caroline litigated complex questions relating to choice of law, RICO, the Alien Tort Statute, jurisdiction, preemption, capacity, statute of limitations, and vicarious liability. She also cultivated key third-party witnesses. Caroline has represented clients in the oil, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, video game, and floral industries in price-fixing, monopolization, and unfair competition lawsuits.

Caroline chairs the San Francisco Office’s pro bono practice and has successfully represented clients in many pro bono matters, including divorce, prisoners’ rights, medical care, race discrimination, discrimination based on HIV status, and discrimination based on disabilities. She also has challenged the constitutionality of a state proposition. Caroline is president of the board of directors of Creating Economic Opportunity for Women (C.E.O. Women), an award-winning nonprofit that serves immigrant and refugee women.