{"id":1990,"date":"2017-07-05T11:47:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/aer\/?p=1990"},"modified":"2021-12-16T14:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:58:22","slug":"death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"DEATH PENALTY LESSONS FOR ALL LAWYERS: THE ART AND NECESSITY OF A MITIGATION INVESTIGATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawyers who handle capital cases \u2013 those where the death penalty is the potential punishment \u2013 know that building \u2018the case for life\u2019 is at least as important as defending against a conviction.\u00a0 Most capitally-charged cases are not brought unless the prosecution has strong if not overwhelming evidence of culpability and mens rea<\/em>, so the endgame is saving the client\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

In the parlance of Eighth Amendment language, this requires finding mitigation evidence, defined as \u201cevidence\u2026the sentencer could reasonably find\u2026warrants a sentence less than death\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Tennard v. Dretke<\/u>, 542 U.S. 274, 285, 124 S. Ct. 2562, 2570 (2004)(internal citation omitted).\u00a0 But given the relatively modest number of cases per year in which a death sentence is sought by the prosecution, what is the value of a book devoted entirely to the subject of mitigation?<\/p>\n

The answer is that great value is offered to any lawyer who has to \u2018mitigate\u2019 a client\u2019s conduct.\u00a0 The humanizing of the client at every stage of the trial is one aspect, often known as \u201cfront-loading;\u201d and of course the presentation of a story beyond that of the crime or harm itself, the sentencing\/punishment\/damages story, is a core function of all lawyering.<\/p>\n

The art and science of that story-investigation and story-telling have been honed in the capital defense field.\u00a0 A new book, TELL THE CLIENT\u2019S STORY, Edward Monahan and James Clark editors (ABA 2017), captures the decades of research, experimentation and success in a series of discrete but interlocking chapters that are must reading for anyone concerned about contextualizing criminal behavior for both verdict and punishment.<\/p>\n

What is\u00a0 noteworthy first is the caliber of the contributing authors.\u00a0 John Blume is a leading research and capital case litigator, particularly involving juror attitudes; Russ Stetler is a legendary figure in the mitigation investigation and presentation field; Stephen Bright has led the Southern Center for Human Rights and taught and litigated nationally; and Valerie Hardcastle is a professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience.\u00a0 These are illustrative \u2013 all eighteen contributors have stellar credentials and experience.<\/p>\n

Beyond the contributors lie the contents.\u00a0 TELL THE CLIENT\u2019S STORY is divided into two portions: DISCERNING, a series of chapters on the \u2018what\u2019 and \u2018why\u2019 of mitigation, including readings on what jurors think and listen for and on the current state of neuroscience and its implications for capital mitigation; and TRANSLATING TO PRACTICE, the \u2018how\u2019 chapters of investigating and convincingly presenting the mitigation case.<\/p>\n

Particularly valuable are discussions and strategies regarding the use of experts \u2013 translatable to every courtroom context; case-theory development; story-telling; and juror beliefs, needs and education.\u00a0 The case is convincingly argued that \u201cmitigation theory development\u201d is the \u201cfoundation for case reviews and strategy deliberations.\u201d\u00a0 And the book is intended to offer templates and tools for those in non-capital litigation, be it in the sentencing of juvenile offenders facing life imprisonment or beyond to any and all criminal punishment contexts.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising that one of the book jacket\u2019s laudatory blurbs describes TELL THE CLIENT\u2019S STORY as \u201cthe Bible of good lawyering for capital clients.\u201d\u00a0 A more measured comment follows from another reviewer \u2013 \u201cThis new book is an essential guide to help 21st<\/sup>-century criminal defense lawyers learn a skill that is just as important as mastering the rules of evidence, effective cross-examination, or persuasive summation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the reviewers are correct.\u00a0 In a world of criminal litigation where sentencing proceedings predominate and trials occur in only a small percentage of cases, finding and telling the client\u2019s story are \u00a0the skill lawyers must master, and TELLING THE CLIENT\u2019S STORY is the essential tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers who handle capital cases \u2013 those where the death penalty is the potential punishment \u2013 know that building \u2018the case for life\u2019 is at least as important as defending against a conviction.\u00a0 Most capitally-charged cases are not brought unless the prosecution has strong if not overwhelming evidence of culpability and mens rea, so the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,6,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-advocacy-and-evidence-blog","category-criminal-law","category-trial-advocacy"],"yoast_head":"\nDEATH PENALTY LESSONS FOR ALL LAWYERS: THE ART AND NECESSITY OF A MITIGATION INVESTIGATION - Advocacy and Evidence Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Death penalty cases offer lessons for all lawyers who must contextualize their clients' conduct in search of a fair punishment\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DEATH PENALTY LESSONS FOR ALL LAWYERS: THE ART AND NECESSITY OF A MITIGATION INVESTIGATION - Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Death penalty cases offer lessons for all lawyers who must contextualize their clients' conduct in search of a fair punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-05T15:47:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T14:58:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e\"},\"headline\":\"DEATH PENALTY LESSONS FOR ALL LAWYERS: THE ART AND NECESSITY OF A MITIGATION INVESTIGATION\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-05T15:47:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-16T14:58:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Advocacy\",\"Advocacy and Evidence Blog\",\"Criminal Law\",\"Trial Advocacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2017\/07\/05\/death-penalty-lessons-lawyers-art-necessity-mitigation-investigation\/\",\"name\":\"DEATH PENALTY LESSONS FOR ALL LAWYERS: THE ART AND NECESSITY OF A MITIGATION INVESTIGATION - 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