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Visit our Mitigation Specialist website at www.mitigationexpert.com to find detailed information on this service!
Palmer Investigative Services specializes in legal mitigation services. We are able to assist our clients with mitigation services related to capital and criminal cases.
- Specializing in capital criminal mitigation cases, yet have successfully worked non-capital cases.
- We take both public defender and privately retained mitigation cases.
- We provide mitigation services nationwide.
- We can provide mitigation services in English and Spanish.
- We locate mitigation evidence all over the U.S. and Mexico.
- Palmer Investigative Services has been handling mitigation cases since 1981.
- Mitigation consultations to develop a plan.
- Each mitigation case is handled by a well-trained team.
- We do in-person interviews, and do not use subcontractors or other agencies for this.
Visit our Mitigation Specialist website at www.mitigationexpert.com
Regarding the defendant, we investigate and provide information related to:
- In-depth assessment of the defendant
- Complete family history, back several generations
- Mental health history and treatment within the family
- Complete medical history within the family
- School records, including interviews with administrators, counselors and teachers
- Department of Corrections treatments from prior incarceration
- Abuse and trauma issues and lack of parenting
- Breakdown of child protective and welfare system
- Poverty, community violence, gang affiliations and toxic environments
- Drug and alcohol abuse
- Positive roles within the family and community
- Employment history
- Court and police records
- Attorney and court friendly reports and exhibits
One prominent death penalty attorney said that our agency was, “Twenty times better then any other mitigation specialist I have ever used.”
We find that mitigation work is a combination of both art and science. The science part is the ability to know where to look for police records, social workers reports, mental health professionals’ reports, medical records, school records, court records and every other written piece of documentation.
The science is also knowing how to locate:
- Witnesses
- Friends
- Educators
- Counselors
- Treating physicians
- Welfare case workers
- Parents
- Siblings
- Aunts and uncles
- Grandparents and great grandparents
- Godparents
- In-laws and shirttail relatives
- Many of the above haven’t seen the defendant since childhood and are now scattered about the country.
It is both art and science, knowing how to finesse these people into talking to you, giving statements and finding out what you need to know, then getting them to testify.
Finally, all of these witness statements, records, reports and findings are useless to the defense attorney unless they can be properly organized and mapped out into a usable format that can be utilized in court. The art is in knowing what factors will truly be considered by a judge or jury in passing sentence against a defendant. It is art in knowing how to present those factors in a manner that the trier of fact will pay attention to and truly take to heart. It is in knowing how to make them connect with the defendant so they see that person as a human being. That the defendant faced challenges in their lives that may have resulted in some wrong decisions, but given the same circumstances a judge or juror can say, “There but for the grace of God, go I.”
We take both public defender and privately retained mitigation cases. These assignments are usually for capital criminal cases, but we sometimes have been used in non-capital cases where mitigation might help in lessening the sentence.
Dr. Robert A. “Bob” Palmer supervises every case. Dr. Palmer has a master’s degree in forensic psychology and his dissertation for his doctorate was on Mitigation in Capital Cases. Each case is looked at by our team and the case is planned out. We have both English and Spanish speaking agents and have handled cases with witnesses and evidence all over the United States, including Alaska, and outside the U.S. in Mexico.
Each part of the case is assigned to the most suited investigator. Some have skills in locating people, others in searching records, others in interviewing, and so on. The witnesses are located and interviewed, the court, school, mental health and medical records located and obtained, and every aspect of the case is then put together by our team in an attorney friendly format. We do timelines of the defendant’s life history, plugging in everything that could be a factor in sentencing.
One prominent death penalty attorney said that our agency was, “Twenty times better then any other mitigation specialist I have ever used.” This was after he had used some of the top names in the country that did nothing more then run up a huge bill, staying at the most expensive suites at the most extravagant hotels, all on the public defender’s bill.
We never charge for an initial consultation to see if we can be of help.
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