Instructor Spotlight: David Lewis
Tell us about your background and what inspired you to teach this course
I had been an appellate lawyer in private practice for many years and had done a fair amount of innocence project work when I was hired in 2019 to set-up a conviction integrity unit at the District Attorney’s Office in Boston. It’s been an incredible experience and I’m proud of what our team has accomplished - we’ve provided some form of relief to 18 people who had served a total of 564 years in prison. I was talking about our work with a friend of mine who is a professor here at Tufts and he commented that it sounded like it had the makings of a great class at the ExCollege. And here I am!
You had Robert Foxworth as a guest speaker last week. Can you tell us a little bit more about this?
I believe that the most important lesson for the class to learn this semester is to understand that when you are talking about wrongful convictions you are talking about real people, with real families and friends, who are doing real time in prison who shouldn’t be there. I didn’t want the students to understand that in a cerebral way, but viscerally; they had to know it in their heart. Robert is an incredible man and he was the perfect guest to teach the class this lesson.
How is Massachusetts doing in terms of justice and racism in the legal and prison system?
In general, I’d say the Massachusetts legal/prison system is better than most, but that we can still do better. For example, the system set-up to appoint lawyers to indigent defendants - which has both racial and socio-economic impacts - is considered one of the best in the country in getting people lawyers when they need one in a way that is extremely cost-effective for taxpayers. But the system isn’t perfect - we live in an expensive part of the country and the rate of pay is too low which results in too few lawyers participating in the program leaving people without lawyers who need one.
What do you hope that students will take away from your course?
I want them to be able to ask the right questions, to be able to call out people who are not telling the truth, and to understand that "justice for all" means everybody. No exceptions.
David Lewis has over 20 years of experience as an appellate attorney in Massachusetts. In that time, he litigated over 175 appeals in state and federal court, including many first-degree murder cases. In December 2019, he became the first chief of the Integrity Review Bureau at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office under then-DA Rachael Rollins. Since its founding, the IRB has exonerated or provided relief to over a dozen people who had been incarcerated for a combined total in excess of 500 years. He holds a JD from the University of Denver College of Law.
Learn more about Robert Foxworth and his exoneration below.