Making the System Work

Maryam Afshar-Stewart believes in second chances.

It’s a belief solidified by her time as a deputy prosecuting attorney with the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office, and a common thread connecting her current work as a defense attorney. “There should be some sense of accountability, but also there needs to be some element of preventing people from reoffending,” Afshar-Stewart says. “How can we provide resources to assist people so something like this doesn’t happen again?”

Afshar-Stewart’s interest in law began while on her high school’s mock trial team, but her desire for justice started even earlier. Her awareness of domestic violence as a prevalent issue, including in the immigrant community where she grew up, gave her the drive to stand up for vulnerable women. “That’s really where my interest in practicing law stemmed from: trying to assist victims in probably the worst time of their life,” she says.

She attributes her own work ethic to her mother and father, from Pakistan and Iran respectively. Her mother—a 16-year-old bride who emigrated to the U.S. without knowing English, ultimately raising five children and owning a cosmetology business—is an especially inspiring figure.

As a law student, Afshar-Stewart participated in Valparaiso University’s Law Clinic. The experience left her with a strong sense of empathy she’s carried with her into her career. “I was much younger and couldn’t really understand how somebody could end up in a situation where they’re facing criminal charges,” Afshar-Stewart says. “By representing those indigent individuals, I was able to gain more exposure and more sympathy to their circumstances.”

This work led to her discovery that Indiana did not have a law compensating wrongly incarcerated people, meaning those freed from prison would be left to pick up the pieces with no assistance after the state’s error. While serving on the Valparaiso University Law Review executive board, she wrote and published the article “Wrongfully Incarcerated Never Fully Compensated: An Examination of Indiana’s Failure to Indemnify Exonerated Inmates.” “I really did it as a way to propose legislation for Indiana to adopt,” Afshar-Stewart says. In 2019, four years after her article was published, the state passed a law making wrongly incarcerated people eligible for restitution.

As a newly sworn-in attorney who’d just joined the prosecutor’s office in 2016, Afshar-Stewart was immediately tapped for a high-stakes death penalty case. “It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I embraced the challenge. I thought, ‘What an excellent opportunity to get exposure this early on,’” she recalls. “Like trying anything new, there was the uncertainty and doubting yourself, but then I realized, ‘You were selected for a reason; you can do this.’” The case ended in a plea agreement with a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

She later helped found the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit, which specializes in investigating and prosecuting sexual assault and domestic violence cases.

Afshar-Stewart began training nurses and members of law enforcement through the SVU to promote better handling of sexual assault and domestic violence investigations, aiming to prevent mistakes that could affect the successful prosecution of a suspect. Those who took the classes found them helpful, Afshar-Stewart says, because they were able to better understand criminal investigations from a legal standpoint. “These were individuals that were extremely interested in what we were doing and wanted to help make that difference,” she says. “In order for the system to work, everyone needs to work together cohesively.”

In less than a decade Afshar-Stewart prosecuted hundreds of misdemeanor and felony offenses and led dozens of jury trials. Then she made a major change. She joined Stracci Law Group as an associate attorney in 2020, ”to take on another challenge, representing individuals charged with serious offenses. I felt I did everything I wanted to do in prosecution work.”

She served in the Lake County Public Defender’s Office as a felony public defender from 2020 to 2022. “I thought it would be weird [switching from prosecution], but the change was instant,” Afshar-Stewart recalls. “First day, I felt like I’d been doing it for years. It was a seamless transition.”

During that time, she was also appointed to the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Northern District of Indiana, where she continues to represent people facing federal charges who can’t afford legal counsel.

Afshar-Stewart’s combination of experiences has been especially vital in informing how she does her job as a frequent judge pro tempore in felony and county courts in Lake County. “My experience as a prosecutor and even a defense attorney is something that I utilize heavily when I sit on the bench,” she says. “I’m able to weigh both sides and look at the case for what it is.”