NM: an everyday kind of hero

Real-life Role Model: The other side - She's devoted her life to justice, traveling the state to fight for accused killers from the fringes of society

Lelia Hood sits eyeball to eyeball with men and women who give most people nightmares.

They are people like Zacharia Craig, a mentally deficient man accused of running down a State Police officer in 2001; Phillip Busey, a transient who could face the death penalty if convicted of raping and bludgeoning a Nob Hill woman last year; and Karen Smallwood, who is also facing execution if convicted of killing a young Santa Fe mother in 2004.

Hood is their ally and, in most cases, the only hope they have for avoiding lethal injection or a prison sentence that could put them away for the rest of their lives.

It's a role Hood, 46, does not take lightly. Indeed, if she were any more passionate about being a public defender in the state Capital Crimes Unit, she could easily overwhelm a courtroom...