Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Oct. 2, 2022. Read more of CT Mirror’s “Best of 2022” stories here.
TaShun Bowden-Lewis’ hour-long drive to and from her Hartford office might include time spent soaking in the soulful expeditions of musical icons Anita Baker and Mary J. Blige or strategizing on the phone with a colleague about what division unit needs an expansion.
“If I Ruled The World” by Nas and Lauryn Hill could also get Bowden-Lewis humming the right tune before work, but meetings and calls take up more of life lately for the recently appointed chief public defender.
After spending a quarter of her life in courtrooms, fighting for clients and negotiating with judges and prosecutors, Bowden-Lewis now oversees a state-funded agency with more than 400 employees and decision-making authority over how Connecticut’s public defenders help people navigate the criminal legal system.
“Lots of decisions have to be made,” Bowden-Lewis said. “But I truly, truly enjoy the role.”
Her July appointment by the Public Defender Services Commission to head the Office of Chief Public Defender also added a new, and perhaps more significant, layer to the state’s history archives: She is the first Black person — and, more specifically, the first Black woman to do so.
Now three months submersed in her new job, Bowden-Lewis has tasked...
An FIR has been filed against a woman for allegedly disseminating misleading information and attempting to attribute a communal motive to the Yamuna Expressway bus fire incident in Greater Noida, ...