Every year, 15,000 public defenders take on more than 5 million new cases. If ever there was an occupation that was undervalued yet so sorely needed, theirs is it. This stirring documentary from former lawyer Dawn Porter focuses on Gideon’s Promise, an organization that mentors young public defenders. One of them, Travis Williams, takes on a staggering 120 cases in his first year, including defense of a young man facing a life sentence for a $96 robbery. In the American legal system, the poor apparently still have to play by a different set of rules. Monday, July 1, at 9 p.m., HBO
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
-
Florida aims to end all state vaccine requirementsSpeed Read Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to cut vaccine access and install anti-vaccine activists at the FDA and CDC
-
September 4 editorial cartoonsCartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include Donald Trump hiding in the Oval Office and Jeffrey Epstein survivors
