60 Minutes highlights Prof. Pam Metzger's defense work (LINK)

On April 16, “60 Minutes“ on CBS examined New Orleans' overburdened and underfunded public defender system. Among the experts whose work was highlighted was Tulane Law Professor Pam Metzger, who has long worked to improve the delivery of public defense services.

Metzger, the Robert A. Ainsworth Professor in the Courts, is a nationally recognized Sixth Amendment and ethics scholar and a former director of the Tulane Law School Criminal Law Clinic.

The “60 Minutes” episode focused on the crisis in indigent defense in Orleans Parish, using the case of Donald Gamble as a frightening example. After Gamble languished in jail for months without legal representation from the overtaxed public defenders office, a court appointed Metzger to step in. It took her about five hours’ work reviewing the file to determine that Gamble could not have committed the Bourbon Street armed robbery for which he was arrested. Charges were dropped, and he was freed the next day.

Find the episode and transcript here.

Note: This story was updated April 17, 2017.