The People Behind The Cases
Hi Friends of TDS,
When people think about capital defense, they usually picture attorneys in courtrooms. But some of the most important work happens outside the courtroom entirely—in living rooms, hospital records, school files, and decades-old family histories.
That work is often done by social workers rooted in mitigation investigation.
Every case Texas Defender Service takes on involves a person whose life did not begin on the day of their arrest. Our mitigation specialists, all licensed social workers, trace that person’s life back—through their childhood, medical history, trauma, mental health challenges, and the systemic failures that shaped their lives long before the courtroom ever entered the picture. Our team builds the fullest possible account of a person’s story, because the decision-makers determining a person’s future need to see the whole person, not just the worst moment of their life.
In 2025 alone, our Mitigation Team advocated for 18 clients and helped save the lives of five pre-trial clients whose cases were resolved for life without parole, life imprisonment, or a term of years.
This is slow, tedious work. Some days, this work means sitting with family members who have never told their story to anyone. Other days, it’s trying to find records from schools, hospitals, and businesses that closed long ago. But through it all, our mitigation specialists center the humanity of the people we serve, recognizing how trauma, poverty, mental illness, and other life circumstances shape a person’s story.
Without that work, courts and jurors make life-and-death decisions with only half the story. But by investigating beyond the facts of the offense, TDS gives decision-makers a much fuller picture of the human being in front of them.
Thank you for supporting work that insists every person’s full story matters, especially when the system is inclined to reduce them to their worst moment.
With gratitude,
Randi Chavez
Co-Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
