Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Honorable Sandra L. Townes graduated from Johnson C. Smith University with her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 and later from Syracuse University College of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1976.

In 1999, Townes was elected as Justice of the Fifth Judicial District New York Supreme Court (2000–04).

She was selected by the New York State Governor, George Pataki, to the judicial post of Appellate Division Associate justice handling appeals for the 2nd Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court (2001–04).

Townes was nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York by President George W. Bush on August 1, 2003 to a seat vacated when the Honorable Sterling Johnson Jr. assumed senior status.

She assumed senior status on May 1, 2015, serving in that status until her death of lung cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York on February 8, 2018.