Digging Deep With Defense Maps
Understanding, let alone telling, your client’s story can be a daunting task. Lawyers often lack the time and resources to peel back the layers of a client’s life and properly put their offense in context. Thankfully, they now have a free, powerful, comprehensive and confidential tool to help get the job done – Defense Map.…
Question Everything: Computer Forensics at Sentencing
In a criminal case, the contents of your computer can be your saving grace or the nail in your coffin. This is particularly true in cases involving online offenses. But, taking the government’s word for what they found during the search of your devices is a very bad idea! Helping us get Set For Sentencing…
The Devil You Know: The “Funny Math” of the Guidelines, Proposed Fixes, and Lessons Learned From Capital Defense.
Helping us get Set For Sentencing, Prof. Douglas Berman. He is is the Newton D. Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law and Executive Director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, housed in the Moritz College of Law of The Ohio State University. Professor Berman is the creator and author of the widely-read and widely-cited blog, Sentencing Law…
Understanding Autism at Sentencing
At least 1 in every 54 Americans are on the Autism Spectrum. But prosecutors and judges often fail to understand what Autism is, why those on the spectrum can be morally blameless for the crimes they have committed, why they are they unlikely to reoffend, and why sending them to prison is cruel and unusual…
Disrupting the Dehumanizing Sentencing Process
I can think of no better guest to officially launch the Set For Sentencing Podcast than the incomparable Liz Vartkessian!
Her amazing organization takes an undeniably essential humanistic approach to the development of crucial sentencing mitigation in capital and serious non-capital cases.
I have learned so much from Liz and the fantastic trainings her organization provides over the years, and I can’t wait for you to meet her.
The Three Most Important Words in Persuasive Communication
We lawyers are told to use narrative to advocate for our clients and persuade decision-makers. But, nobody ever taught us how to tell great stories. That’s all about to change. Persuasive Storytelling Imagine we are hunkered down at our favorite bar. I throw back a shot and say, “Man, have I got a story for…
Anastasia Screams In Vain: The Devil’s Coming For Melissa Lucio
I Stuck around St. Petersburg, when I saw it was a time for a change. Killed the Tsar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain. –Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones The famous Stones song is a meditation on evil. If we have some understanding of the devil’s work, we may better understand the…
Every good story has meaning!
We humans are undeniably creatures of story. Think of how empty life would be without ever having been transfixed by images dancing before our eyes in a dark movie theatre, engrossed in an incredible page-turner, or mesmerized by a master storyteller weaving a yarn around a roaring campfire. But stories are not just for entertainment. …
The Labor of Law – Save Yourself and You Save the World
Next month I will have officially reached my twenty-fifth year of lawyering; the majority of those years were spent slogging through the litigation trenches as a state and federal public defender. These can be dark waters we lawyers swim in. We confront people at their lowest moments in life. We absorb trauma vicariously through our…
