Description
- Abstract:
- Court processes have been known to inflict heavy punishment on defendants, even prior to conviction. From lengthy periods of detention to harsher sentences, even the simple act of going to trial carries with it a hefty cost. Enter the mitigation specialist, the rare criminal justice actor focused on reducing punishment in the sentencing phase of adjudication. Little is known about these experts who work to resist such punitive excess. Drawing on fifteen oral histories with mitigation specialists, I examine how they conceptualize their role within the criminal courts, which function like efficient organizations where an emphasis on case processing competes with deliberative judgment. I outline the cultural and organizational barriers that they face as well as the strategies mitigation specialists employ in order to carry out their work. I find that mitigation specialists face severe time constraints in assembling mitigation materials. As a result, they selectively curate the fact-based personal narratives they present to align with judicial sensibilities, and foreground prevalent client experiences of trauma. In addition, they reconceptualize the purpose of their role, centering more therapeutic aspects as opposed to seeing their work entirely through the lens of sentencing outcomes. This study sheds light on a largely ignored field at the forefront of pursuing substantive justice, uncovering the unseen labor involved in mitigation practice and illuminating the structures and entrenched logics that underpin the American criminal legal system.
- Notes:
- Scholarly concentration: International and Public Affairs
- Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Access Conditions
- Use and Reproduction
- All rights reserved
- Rights
- In Copyright
Citation
Julian D. Cohen,
"Humanizing Defendants: Mitigation Specialists in the American Legal System"
(2026).
The Watson School of International and Public Affairs Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/gq64-2137
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The Watson School of International and Public Affairs Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the The Watson School of International and Public Affairs department....