From misery to mission: forensic social workers on multidisciplinary mitigation teams.
Social workers are well-equipped by experience and education to play a pivotal role in death penalty mitigation teams. They offer expertise in researching complete social histories, providing for people under threat of execution, and helping those individuals cope with that threat. The social worker's primary role is to develop the client's story through an extensive empirical inquiry into the person's life. An equally important role for social workers is to work with the multidisciplinary defense team to ensure that the client's life story becomes a part of the defense. This article, through a case example of a condemned prisoner, examines the mitigation team concept, focusing on the social work role.
Guin
Cecile C
CC
Office of Social Service Research and Development, School of Social Work, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803, USA. cguin@lsu.edu
Noble
Dorinda N
DN
Merrill
Thomas S
TS
D002203:Capital Punishment; D003418:Criminology; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008016:Life Change Events; D033262:Narration; D024382:Professional Role; D012949:Social Work, Psychiatric / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States