Capital cases are criminal prosecutions where a defendant may face the death penalty. These trials have two phases: In the guilt phase, a jury decides whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. In the penalty phase, the jury hears arguments about aggravating or mitigating factors and decides on a sentence.

Elizabeth Vartkessian plays a huge but little-known role on defense teams in capital cases: As a mitigation specialist, it’s her job to spend hundreds of hours visiting with defendants and their families, teachers, neighbors, and friends — to get a fuller picture of the person’s life, including past abuse, trauma, and mental illness. The stories she collects might save her clients’ lives.

Vartkessian is also founder and director of Advancing Real Change, a national nonprofit dedicated to conducting life history investigations in criminal cases. And she’s the author of THE DESERVING: WHAT THE LIVES OF THE CONDEMNED REVEAL ABOUT AMERICAN JUSTICE, which came out in January. In this episode, we talk about how she does her work, why she wrote this book, and her abiding belief in the law.

Elizabeth Vartkessian's author site: https://www.elizabethvartkessian.com/

Buy the book: https://geni.us/thedeserving

Advancing Real Change: https://advancechange.org/

Host: Hal Humphreys

Guest: Elizabeth Vartkessian

Sponsored by: TLOxp®

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

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