Open Letter for Attorneys
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Specialized Services
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Chelsea Richardson Mitigation Specialist Supervisor for the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO)’s Juvenile Lifer Unit (JLU):
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As Mitigation Specialist Supervisor, I supervise and train a multidisciplinary team of mitigation specialists who work with our juvenile lifer clients in preparation for resentencing hearings. Mitigation specialists are core members of the legal defense team who collect evidence to present to prosecutors during negotiations or in court at Miller evidentiary hearings or term-of-years resentencing hearings. Mitigation specialists draw from a diverse range of professional, academic, and life experiences to inform their work. They must be empathetic communicators, effective interviewers, curious investigators, critical readers, data managers, creative writers, compassionate listeners, and zealous advocates.
Familiarity with the inner workings of Michigan prisons and the criminal legal system is paramount to this work. Formerly incarcerated individuals, especially former juvenile lifers, possess indispensable knowledge, wisdom, and experience that can be applied to roles within the legal defense team. These roles include:
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• Expert: With their lived experiences as juvenile lifers in the Michigan prison system, ASRS experts could provide expert testimony, reports, or
consultation related to adjustment and culture in prison, MDOC policies and procedures, and the reentry process. As an expert consultant, an ASRS provider could also assist the defense team in building rapport with incarcerated clients by educating the team about barriers to trust and cultural differences. Fighting injustice through access, advocacy, compassion, and education.
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• Mitigation specialist: As a member of the defense team, trained mitigation specialists regularly meet with and interview clients, collect and analyze records, identify and interview witnesses, and write social history reports. SADO utilizes the services of in-house mitigation specialists and contracts with qualified private-practice mitigation specialists.
• Reentry specialist: As a member of the defense team, reentry specialists meet with clients, develop Comprehensive Reentry Plans (CRPs), prepare clients for Parole Board interviews, and assist clients in navigating resources related to housing, employment, social services, and more upon release from prison. At SADO, some of our most successful reentry specialists have been former juvenile lifers who used their life experiences to support returning citizens in their journeys home.
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SADO is an appellate public defender office working statewide to address injustices and disparities in the criminal legal system. The JLU represents clients who were sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed as teenagers and are now entitled to resentencing hearings following U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the cases of Montgomery v Louisiana, and Miller v Alabama. Following successful Michigan Supreme Court arguments in Parks, Poole, and Stovall, SADO attorneys expanded these resentencing hearings to people serving life without parole for crimes committed at age 18 and people serving life with parole sentences for offenses committed as youth.
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Please seriously consider our services,
ASRS