Randi Chavez Receives the Muhammad-White Award
Dear Friends,
I am proud to share that Randi Chavez, Texas Defender Service’s Deputy Director and Head of Mitigation, has received the Muhammad-White Award from Advancing Real Change, Inc. (ARC). The Muhammad-White Award honors a mitigation specialist whose body of work has profoundly advanced the field of mitigation.
Through her unparalleled leadership, thoughtful mentorship, and deep compassion for her clients, Randi has made an enormous impact on the field of mitigation in Texas. Mitigation specialists gather and present mitigating evidence—information about a defendant’s life history—to persuade a judge or jury to impose a sentence less severe than death. Randi has been a mitigation specialist for nearly 23 years, launching her mitigation career as an intern at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center.
In 2009, Randi joined the Texas Defender Service, where she has served as a mitigation specialist for over 50 clients and provided life-saving consultation on the cases of 25 trial teams.
In 2017, Randi formed a team of mitigation specialists to conduct mitigation investigations for clients facing the death penalty across the State of Texas. Before Randi established TDS’s Mitigation Unit, Texas capital trial and post-conviction teams struggled to find quality mitigation specialists. Due in large part to the work of Randi’s team, the number of new death sentences in Texas is in the low single digits annually. Her team has inspired District Attorneys to drop capital charges against 36 pretrial clients since 2018.
Randi walks the whole path with her clients, bearing witness and offering compassion. Her compassion is evident not just in her casework, but in how she mentors new mitigation specialists. She has actively sought to bring young people into the profession and nourish their careers. Randi’s career has exemplified a commitment to humanity and justice. Her work has, without a doubt, profoundly advanced the field of mitigation in Texas and the entire country.
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
