Judge Timonthy Lewis Featured in an NPR Report on the Provision of Counsel to the Indigent

Judge Timothy Lewis was featured in a report broadcast on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program on April 15 titled “Report Calls Out Flaws In Public Defender System.“ The news report detailed the release of “Justice Denied: America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel,” an analysis and examination of the state of the United States’ indigent counsel system by the National Right to Counsel Committee. The Committee found endemic and systematic failures in the provision of counsel to the poor accused of crimes, and offered twenty-two specific recommendations on how to address the problems.

“You should not have a better shot at justice, a better opportunity for an adequate defense, depending upon who arrests you in this country or where you were when you were arrested or what court system a defendant winds up in,” Judge Lewis noted. “This is a basic constitutional right.”

Judge Lewis went on to emphasize, “even in difficult economic times, how much is a constitutional right worth? What price tag do we place on the right to vote? The right to be free from illegal searches and seizures? This is no different.”

The full news report can be heard here.