Vol. 30, No. 3, #1. Diane M. Lozano - Wyoming's 6th Public Defender.

• Author: Author: Mary Angell

Wyoming Bar Journal

2007.

Vol. 30, No. 3, #1.

Diane M. Lozano - Wyoming's 6th Public Defender

Issue: June, 2007 Author: Mary AngellDiane M. Lozano - Wyoming's 6th Public DefenderWhen Diane Lozano was a girl, other kids her age wanted to be Princess Diana or Indiana Jones. Not Diane.

"I read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was 12 or 13 years old. I wanted to be Atticus Finch," Lozano recently told the Wyoming Lawyer. "I was raised to always believe you should help people, and I think this is where my skills are best suited."

Like the protagonist of Harper Lee's novel, Wyoming's new state public defender has a passion for helping people in trouble with the law.

Lozano earned both her undergraduate degree in political science and her law degree from the University of Wyoming. She began working in the Wyoming Public Defender's Office in 1994 as an attorney; in 2000, she was promoted to supervising attorney in the Laramie County trial division. In February, Governor Dave Freudenthal appointed her to succeed Ken Koski, who was killed last fall in an accident while backpacking in the Wind River Mountains.

Public defense is a job other attorneys seldom envy and the general public struggles to understand. Lozano said she's often been asked by those outside the legal profession how her conscience allows her to defend people she knows are guilty of crimes.

"Sure, there are people - like victims of crimes - who don't necessarily like what we are, but our system doesn't work without a good public defender program," she said. "Mostly we represent people who have not had the charmed life most of us have had. They've been exposed to drugs and violence at a young age. Poverty makes people make decisions most of us don't make.

"Every once in a while, you have a client you don't like, who has done horrible things," she continued. "My job is to make sure the system works fairly no matter what. It's really about helping people, not judging them."

Public defenders are usually idealistic people, Lozano said. "Sometimes you get cynical," she said. "It's hard not to sometimes. But we've had people working for us 10, 20 or 30 years - and somehow those people still have some idealism left."

Born and raised in Torrington, Lozano attributes her idealism and broadmindedness to her upbringing. She describes her parents as liberals.

"Mom was one of those people who was...