To view the recorded program, click here.

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge welcomes the community to its next virtual Lunch with the League at Noon, Tuesday, April 6 when Marshall Jensen, a Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee, will speak on "Spaces of Sorrow Only God Can Touch": The Death Penalty in Modern America.

Most people think that those on death row must be the worst of the worst,” Jensen shares, “but when we examine who ends up on death row in America what they share is they almost uniformly tend to be poor, mentally ill, intellectually disabled, or suffer from some form of organic brain damage.”

Having served as a Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee in the Capital Habeas Unit since January 2020, Jensen represents individuals sentenced to death in their final, federal appeals prior to execution. Prior to this work, he served as an assistant public defender at the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office, where he represented indigent individuals in Knox County criminal courts.

Jensen is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Law Review. Prior to law school, he worked at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, where he directed Catholic Charities' refugee resettlement program and worked extensively with forced migrants. In addition to administering the domestic resettlement program, his roles included representing clients in immigration proceedings as a Board of Immigration Appeals Accredited Representative and assisting unaccompanied minors in federal custody. 

Marshall holds a master’s degree in Middle East Studies from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, where he received a David L. Boren National Security Education Program fellowship and completed intensive Arabic language training in Morocco. He graduated from Lewis & Clark College with undergraduate degrees in history and political science. A believer in the preferential option for the poor, Marshall states that he is proud to be a public defender.  

Lunch with the League welcomes League members and nonmembers alike to this informative presentation. Members will automatically receive a link to the live presentation. Nonmembers should contact maryannreeves1 [at] att.net to request the link. A couple of days after the presentation, you may view the recorded session on the League’s website (https://my.lwv.org/tennessee/oak-ridge).

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is a nonpartisan political organization for men and women. It encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.