For the Final Paper, you will take on the role of a death penalty mitigation expert hired by the defense attorney to work as a sentencing advocate on behalf of the client/defendant. Based upon the chosen case from the attached list (that was selected in Week 1), you will create a comprehensive case study report arguing against the death penalty for your client (the perpetrator). This report will contain an analysis of the psychological factors that may have contributed to the commission of the crimes in the chosen case study and how these psychological factors should be considered a basis for a prison sentence less than the death penalty.
In your paper,
Summarize the chosen case.
Evaluate the biopsychosocial factors that led the client to commit his or her crimes.
Explain the psychological, situational/social, and biological factors that you believe led to the offenders criminality.
Evaluate how these factors may have contributed to committing violent crimes.
Identify whether your client suffered from a mental illness.
Identify the diagnosis and how the diagnostic criteria was met.
Evaluate the ACEs score you calculated for your client in the Week 3 Adverse Childhood Experiences discussion, to the extent that you were able to answer the questions based on what you could out about your clients history.
Explain the impact of childhood trauma, abuse, and neglect may have on criminal behavior.
Examine whether your client had any events in life that could be considered traumatic such that this could have influenced the criminal behavior.
Explain what the scientific research says about the impact of trauma on criminal/violent behavior.
Analyze any other mitigating factors that may provide a credible argument against a death sentence for your client.
(That is, was your client gainfully employed? Did your client lack a significant criminal history prior to the most recent offenses? Mitigating factors can be anything that humanizes your client and thus makes him/her seem like a candidate for a lesser sentence than death).
Evaluate the mitigating circumstances found in this report.
Propose a specific psychosocial intervention based on your evaluation of the client and case such as counseling, medication, restitution, and so forth. (This proposed intervention will serve as your argument that the death penalty is not appropriate for your client based on these mitigating factors.)
Summarize your analysis and restate your intervention in the conclusion.
