Branks goes above and beyond for SPD.

Byline: Brooke Strickland

For the past 22 years, Michael Branks has served in the State Public Defender's office, where he has used his ambition and initiative to go above and beyond what's required.

His dedication to the people he works alongside has been evident throughout his career, and his vision for the agency has made an undeniable difference.

The past two decades have seen him working on countless complex felony investigations, putting his expertise to use by training other investigators as well as student interns. Not only has he proved to be an outstanding investigator; Branks has also managed to become a polygrapher, an accomplishment requiring a lot of his own time and money.

After becoming interested in a polygrapher role and learning that there was no budget in the office for training, he used his personal leave to enroll in polygraph school and bought his own equipment. He obtained his license and refined his technique through years of training. He has since put all this to use in the hope...