What is a Mitigation Specialist?
“Mitigation Specialist” is the professional term for a defense investigator in death penalty cases who specializes in conducting “mitigation” investigations. In death penalty trials, jurors are entitled to consider “mitigating evidence” in deciding whether to sentence someone to death, or life without parole. Mitigating information can include, among other things, evidence of abuse, trauma, neglect, mental health
disorders, racial oppression, poverty, and intellectual disability. To uncover this evidence, mitigation specialists conduct interviews with a broad range of witnesses, including family, friends, neighbors, teachers, and doctors. They also conduct an extensive record-based investigation, collecting and analyzing, school, mental health, criminal, and employment records. Mitigation specialists assemble the information learned into a compelling story, called a social history narrative. In a post-conviction context, like at OCFW, this narrative is used to show the court that insufficient mitigation evidence was presented at trial, such that it prejudiced our client.
Mitigation specialists at OCFW also participate in fact-investigation which involves challenging the factual narrative of the crime presented at trial. Common areas of fact-investigation include police and prosecutor misconduct, withholding of exculpatory evidence, juror misconduct, and investigation of extraneous offenses.
Who we are Looking For
We are seeking bright and driven students with a passion for criminal justice reform, public defense, social sciences, and/or civil and human rights to assist in the investigation and development of mitigation and factual evidence. Students with a focus in a relevant field (e.g., cultural anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, African American and/or Latin American studies, ethnography, law, social work, communications, or another field involving qualitative research,) are especially encouraged to apply.