Mitigation
The 1st District Court of Appeals of Michigan vacated a life without parole sentence following a felony murder conviction, finding that trial counsel was ineffective by failing to raise mitigating evidence on adolescent brain development and childhood trauma and abuse. The court stated in relevant part: Appellate counsel obtained a mitigation expert, Mary Cuddehe, to…
The Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, held that the trial court erred when it did not permit D.C. an opportunity to speak on his own behalf during the dispositional hearing, particularly when the trial court emphasized D.C.’s purported lack of remorse. The court stated in relevant part: “While appellant’s counsel spoke on his…
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals held the sentencing court erred in setting aside Appellant’s conviction under the Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA) where the court did not weigh Appellant’s age at the time of the offense in his favor and misapplied several other factors. The court stated in relevant part: “In amending the YRA…
This amicus brief from over 26 juvenile justice amici, including the Gault Center, , argues 1) the spirit and text of New York’s passage of landmark Raise the Age Law rejects the attitudes that underlay the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, 2) New York’s Raise the Age Law and its legislative history demands a youth subject to adult prosecution only in “extremely rare and exceptional cases”, 3) before courts…
Abstract: “While there has been momentum at both the federal and state levels to curtail extreme punishments for justice-involved juveniles (The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, 2023), 22 states continue to permit the sentence of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Pennsylvania is among them. This essay focuses on judicial rationale in five JLWOP re-sentencing cases in…
This paper is part of the Series on Learning from Civil Rights Lawsuits from the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse and focuses on parole review procedures for individuals serving long sentences for crimes committed under age 18, discusses constitutional dimensions of parole review for this group, and proposes model policies supporting a meaningful opportunities for release. From the Executive Summary: “In recent years, people serving…
This is an example of a screening tool to be used in collaboration with defense experts, social work staff, and attorneys when gathering information as to whether a young person may have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
Abstract: “Nearly sixty years ago, In re Gault guaranteed children in juvenile court the right to counsel. However, Gault fell short. While recognizing children’s distinct vulnerability, the Court created a right for children that is weaker than that of adults and failed to recognize how youth in fact require a more expansive right to counsel. Grounded in the stories of…
A sample visual timeline capturing specific events in a client’s life for use as mitigation in different stages of a case, including: trial, disposition or post-disposition proceedings, sentencing, or parole advocacy.
