Making the Case for Life CLE program will focus on the investigation, development, and presentation of penalty phase mitigation evidence in capital cases.



Nationally recognized experts will address topics including:

-Remorse and redemption as mitigation themes
-Critical issues in early childhood
-Substance abuse: aggravation or mitigation,
-Investigating your client's mental illness,
-Litigating race: social science and trial tactics,
-Neuroscience: truth and lies,
-Challenging lethal injection,
-Combating future dangerousness, and more.


Faculty will also lead an in-depth discussion of the science of capital jury selection, and capital defense teams will be able to brainstorm their capital cases during a separate track entitled, Teams for Life: Winning Cases through Mitigation. This is a two-day, bring-your-own-case program designed to teach capital defense teams to:

* develop a mitigation investigation plan
* develop an integrated theory for life
* explore mitigation themes
* plan use of mitigation evidence to settle cases and to prepare for trial
* anticipate juror responses to mitigation evidence