ABSTRACT
In a capital case, it is the mandate of the defense team to present any aspect of the case or personal attribute or life circumstance that, in the eyes of the jurors, would decrease a defendant's culpability to the level at which the death penalty is considered undeserved. With recognition that not all defense attorneys choose to put forth mental health expert testimony during the sentencing phase of a capital trial, this chapter focuses on the more typical mitigation strategy that includes presentation of a defendant's troubled life history. It discusses the role of the mental health expert whose job is to relate the life story of the defendant and effectively communicate potentially mitigating information to the trier of fact. The chapter also argues that expert testimony regarding life history, regardless of who presents the data, must be firmly grounded in the research findings of developmental psychopathology.
