Beyond the Charge: What a Decade in Criminal Courts Taught Me About the Power of Telling Someone's Story

"My job is to tell your story.

The judge, the prosecutor: they only know one moment in your life. They have no other information about who you are or what you have been through.

Our job is to tell them.

Okay, where do we begin? We begin at the beginning. Where were you born?"

For the last decade, I have worked as a forensic social worker alongside criminal defense attorneys, providing consultation and mitigation services.

My clients have all been indigent, assigned public defenders, and charged with or found guilty of very serious and often violent crimes. I have interviewed people held on Rikers Island, in maximum-security prisons, and in immigration detention centers. My clients have been men, women, teenagers, transgender individuals, and older adults. They have been scared, sad, hopeful, and distrustful. Many have suffered unspeakable horrors, struggled with substance abuse, or lived with chronic mental health issues.

Despite all these differences and this vast sample of humanity, nearly every client I have worked with has said something like:

"I wish the judge had known this about me."

Once arrested, whether for misdemeanor shoplifting or $10 million in wire fraud, an individual's identity can become erased. They become a number, whether a case number or eventually a prison identification number. Their experiences, hardships, and triumphs cease to exist in the eyes of the criminal legal system. They become solely the person accused of or found guilty of X, Y, or Z on a particular date.

The job of a mitigation specialist is to restore the nuance and individuality of that person. A really good mitigation specialist can translate human experiences in a way that a judge or prosecutor finds compelling.

One of the most in-depth reports I worked on was on behalf of a young man who had been in a terrible car accident and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. After weeks in the hospital and months in rehabilitation, the young man recovered physically, but his personality was profoundly altered. He went from being engaged in school and after-school activities to struggling with addiction and eventually robbing people to support that addiction. The mitigation report provided a fuller picture of how traumatic brain injuries can impact substance use, mental health, and decision-making. It provided context that otherwise might never have come to light.

In NYC, where I worked for over a decade, mitigation reports are a common practice in serious criminal cases and can be used before plea negotiations or sentencing. In the federal system, comprehensive mitigation investigations are particularly established in capital cases, but mitigation reports can be valuable in many other cases, including white-collar offenses, where too often the assumption is that the only driving factor is greed.

In 2020, I met my future husband, Craig Stanland, who was sentenced in 2014 to 24 months in federal prison for one count of mail fraud. As Craig and I got to know one another, and I learned more about his life and what was happening at the time of his crime, it became clear that there were so many contributing factors. Reducing it all to greed was simply a lazy analysis.

What shocked me most was that Craig had not had the opportunity to fully provide context, to explain who he was, what he had been through, and where he was hoping to go. Maybe it would have changed nothing. But what if there had been a way to tell Craig's whole story?

That is what mitigation work offers. It does not excuse the offense or erase accountability. It provides context, restores humanity, and allows the people making consequential decisions to see more than a single moment in someone's life.

The white-collar community can learn from this practice. Mitigation reports can contextualize and humanize, ensuring that a person's entire life is considered alongside the circumstances of their offense.

Whether someone is facing charges, negotiating a plea, or preparing for sentencing, there is value in making sure their story is heard.

Where do we begin? We begin at the beginning.

Elia M. Johnson, LCSW, is the founder of Elia M. Johnson Counseling & Consultation, LLC, which provides trauma-informed psychotherapy, forensic consultation, and mitigation services. With over a decade of experience working alongside criminal defense attorneys, Elia helps individuals and their legal teams develop comprehensive psychosocial histories and mitigation reports that tell the fuller story behind a criminal charge.

Mitigation services are available at any stage of the criminal legal process. To learn more or discuss how these services might assist you or a loved one, visit www.eliamjohnson.com.