W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human & Civil Rights
James Forman Jr. in Conversation
with Paul Butler, Raj Jayadev, and Heather Pinckney
The Role of Public Defenders
The role of public defense comes with an inherent tension: on the one hand, public defenders seek to challenge the system, fighting for individual clients. On the other hand, public defenders are necessarily part of the same system that they are working to resist. Can that tension be reconciled?
Please join us as W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human & Civil Rights James Forman Jr. draws from his co-edited anthology, Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change to explore the unique function of public defenders in the criminal legal system. Professor Forman will engage in a wide-ranging conversation with practitioners and academics who have thought deeply about this question: Paul Butler, Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center, Raj Jayadev, co-founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a community organizing, advocacy, and multimedia storytelling organization and author of author of the new book, Protect Your People, and Heather Pinckney, Director of the Public Defender Service of the District of Colombia.
Complimentary copies of both Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change and Protect Your People will be provided to a limited number of event participants upon registration and attendance. A reception and book signing will follow the panel.
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