Snead Sworn In As Chief Public Defender for Buncombe County

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Alan Z. Thornburg has appointed Sam Snead as the Chief Public Defender for Buncombe County. Snead was sworn in Oct. 1. Snead had served as an assistant capital defender with the Office of the Capital Defender since 2015. Prior to that, he had worked as an assistant public defender in Buncombe County since 1998. Snead received his undergraduate degree in journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill and earned his juris doctor from the District of Columbia School of Law. He fills the seat left vacant by the retirement of M. LeAnn Melton.