Capital Defense Community Resilience Discussion Forum

Capital defense work can deeply affect practitioners both professionally and personally. It involves confronting the traumatic experiences of clients and, at times, facing the devastating reality of a client’s execution despite the highest quality advocacy. To sustain this challenging but necessary work, support from a community dedicated to trauma-informed practices is essential. To help foster such a community, Advancing Real Change, Inc. will host quarterly one-hour Zoom calls for capital defenders on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET . These calls are designed to strengthen the capital defense community, share resources, and discuss best practices for trauma-informed care.

Log on for our next call on Monday, October 27th at 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET. With the increase in number and frequency of executions over the past few months, this session will specifically focus on preparing for and recovering from an execution. The challenges of preparing for the death of a client while focusing on saving his/her life are enormous, and, in many ways, unique to our community. Whether you have a client with a future execution date, have experienced an execution, or are supporting folks in your office who have, we invite you to share your experiences and seek solace in our community.

We are honored to have this meeting facilitated by Rita Radostitz, a seasoned criminal defense attorney and a certified end-of-life doula. She has also worked as a journalist and clinical professor of law, and she leads discussions and trainings for capital defenders on trauma-informed practices. Register here to join the call.

Prior to joining the call, attendees are strongly encouraged to read Chapter 5 of Susannah Sheffer’s book Fighting For Their Lives titled “The Impact”.  In this selection, Sheffer writes “The impact remains, sometimes long past what the attorneys anticipate. Through the shakiness, the panic reactions, the numbness, and the disorientation, their bodies are saying that it is impossible to insulate oneself from the pain and sadness that this work engenders. It’s impossible not to take it in and be changed by it – in ways that never entirely subside.” You can access a copy of the reading here.

This initiative and other ARC, Inc. trauma-informed efforts are partially in response to the TIC Audit Report to the Capital Defense Community (PDF). The report summarizes findings related to defender experiences during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. You are invited to read the report to discover more ways practitioners, agencies, and organizations can implement trauma-informed practices to reduce harm.

Facilitator

Rita Radostitz has served as a criminal defense attorney for her entire legal career, including many years doing post-conviction capital work in Texas. She has recently been certified as an end-of-life doula. She accompanied numerous clients through their executions while serving as defense counsel to clients in Texas, first at the Texas Resource Center and then in private practice.

Rita is Resource Counsel at the Military Commissions Defense Organization and spent 8 years as defense counsel on the team representing Ammar al Baluchi in the 9/11 Military Commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She has also worked as a journalist, clinical professor of law, professor of non-profit management, and communications director for a large university and a number of small non-profit organizations.