Sondra R. Rodrigues, 76, of Philadelphia, civic-minded attorney who specialized in representing indigent criminal defendants, former English teacher for the School District of Philadelphia, one-time reporter for the Germantown Courier newspaper, and mentor, died Tuesday, Nov. 22, of hydrocephalus at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
She defended other Innocence Project clients, helped prison inmates receive proper medical treatment for hepatitis C in the 1990s, and served on the Philadelphia Bar Association’s criminal justice mentoring summit in 2008. In 2009, the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania presented her with a Pro Bono Publico Award for “exceptional pro bono service to the underprivileged” in Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court Trial Division.
She opened her featured front-page story in the Courier’s West Oak Lane edition on Oct. 11, 1978, by writing: “William Dillard is a 24-year-old with a lot of love in his heart. September 28, William donated his kidney to save his 33-year-old sister’s life.” She was a classroom lab assistant for the School District of Philadelphia until she earned her bachelor’s degree, and later a master’s degree, in education at La Salle.