Advocacy Beyond the Verdict- Inside NAPD’s Team Mitigation Institute in NYC

In the challenging world of public defense, there’s a growing emphasis on holistic, team-based mitigation. The idea is simple yet powerful: to move beyond the narrow focus on a client’s guilt or innocence and tell the full, nuanced story of […]

Social Work Meetup: Incorporating Immigration Stories into Mitigation

Crimmigration is the intersection of criminal and immigration law, but it is also an opportunity to develop and tell the immigration story through mitigation. Immigration stories can be rich with hope and heavy with trauma and in this week’s meetup […]

Social Work Meetup: Learn About Video Mitigation with Isacha Sandy

At this week’s meetup, Forensic Social Worker Isacha Sandy will share how she has created video mitigation in an accessible, budget-friendly way to help humanize clients facing legal systems. This session will explore core principles of effective storytelling, ethical considerations, […]

Social Worker Meetup: Caseloads and Structure of Mitigation Workers in PD Offices

On a Monday – Special Monday-Meetup! We know that every jurisdiction is different, but we are also aware there is not uniformity in how mitigation work gets done in defense based offices. This discussion will focus on who is doing […]

Social Worker Meetup: Keeping Mitigation Themes Compelling

We have talked in the past about mitigation themes and also referred to the John B. Meixner, Jr. article, “Modern Sentencing Mitigation” that includes an analysis of the most compelling themes with the best outcomes in federal sentencing. This social […]

Social Worker Supervisor Discussion Meetup

This meetup is a discussion for and with social worker supervisors supervising social workers, sentencing advocates, dispositional advocates, mitigation specialists and others performing these roles in indigent defense offices. Stephanne Thornton, NAPD Social Work Training and Resource Coordinator and Kevin […]

Strategic Mitigation: Condensed and Abbreviated Versions of Mitigation

On a Monday – Special Monday-Meetup! When a case has a tight turnaround or in-depth mitigation development hasn’t been requested, how do you create a condensed or abbreviated version of mitigation? How do you structure your mitigation writing, or do […]

Strengthening Defense Teams: NAPD’s Team Mitigation Institute

The National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) recently hosted their Team MitigationInstitute in Seattle, Washington. This intensive, multidisciplinary event brought together publicdefenders from across the country to hone their skills in developing and implementing effectivemitigation strategies for their clients. The […]