New federal public defender appointed for Eastern District of Arkansas

Lisa G. Peters has been appointed to a four-year term as the federal public defender for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

The announcement, issued Monday, came from Chief Judge Lavenski R. Smith of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The federal public defender’s office provides legal representation to people charged with federal criminal offenses and who cannot afford their own attorneys. The office has a staff of 12 attorneys and 20 support personnel.

Peters succeeds Jenniffer Horan, the first federal public defender for the Eastern and Western districts of Arkansas. Horan has served since December 1994, when the office was established.

In January 2013, the Western District of Arkansas became a separate federal public defender’s office, with Bruce Eddy as the head of it. Horan focused on the Eastern District of Arkansas after that.

Peters is a graduate of Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tenn., and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law. She has been a member of the federal public defender’s office since its doors opened for service to the public on June 30, 1995, according to a news release from the 8th Circuit office.

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