A List of Sad Things Won't Make The Judge Care

It's an all-too easy trap to fall into--criminal mitigation ennui...

There is a samey-ness with most cases. Once you've had one Client-Who-Was-Neglected-And-Abused-And-Turned-To-Drugs-And-Alcohol-And-Gangs-And-Crime-And-Now-Has-Two-Kids-Somewhere-Who-He-Sees-Maybe-Once-A-Week...mitigation will feel a lot similar for most of them. It feels like a sad parade of cliches marching past us every time, to where even mustering an "Oh the Humanity!" feels less genuine than an obligatory signal to the world that we are still empaths.

An average defense submission (mitigation report, sentencing narrative) is nothing more than a Frankenstein mashup of government records, assorted psych evals and testimonials strung together like some kind of CV of Sadness. And because problems don't vary that much in certain social strata, we confound people with their problems, and well, everyone starts looking and sounding a lot similar.

Challenges and obstacles in someone's life when you don't know what they wanted in the first place will never be interesting. Watch any movie, read any novel. The author will never ask for you to care about a character's problems without first laying out what they want.

Don't get me wrong-- We consume stories to see people struggle: MAN VS. But those struggles only gain meaning when they stand in the way of objectives. Without desires abuting struggles we ascribe little value to the struggle itself or the life of the individual struggling. If your clients' desires for his life don't figure into your submission, he will remain a shadow, an idea, a symptom of social ills. But give voice to his desires in the FACE of those sad list of challenges and the story will really begin to sing.