Ask a Mitigation Specialist
Ask a Mitigation Specialist, a resource program that allows defenders to meet directly and privately with a mitigation specialist for specific technical assistance. Complete the form below for a 25-minute session with experienced mitigation professionals. The information discussed during each session is confidential. Registration for this event has closed.
Amy Williams & Lela Hubbard
Registration for this event has closed. If you would like to schedule an appointment for Ask A Mitigation Specialist, appointments are currently available for December 17th from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. ET
Please only sign up for AMS if you can commit to attending, as this helps us and our advisors manage scheduling and keeps spots available for those who can fully participate. If an emergency or unexpected conflict arises, please notify us as soon as possible so we can adjust plans and honor the time our volunteer advisors generously offer.
Amy Williams, LCSW
Amy is a licensed clinical social worker and the founding principal of Williams Mitigation and Consulting. She provides mitigation investigation services on capital cases and serves as a mitigation consultant for the Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Project (TxHAT) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). Prior to these roles, she was the CHU Chief Investigator at the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas, Texas. She has practiced capital mitigation in trial, state, and federal post-conviction proceedings for over ten years.
Amy graduated from the University of Houston where she researched parent-child dyads’ contributions to the development of anxiety and depressive disorders in children and later in graduate school, co-sponsored a study focused on African-American women’s needs for trauma-informed, culturally competent mental health care. Amy is published in the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health and has worked as a psychotherapist in inpatient and outpatient treatment settings in New York and Texas since 2018.
Lela Hubbard
Lela Hubbard, LMSW, received her master’s degree from Jackson State University School of Social Work in 1998, and continued to worked in both Behavioral Health and Family Services. From 2006-2020, she worked as a mitigation specialist in the MS Office of Capital Defense. Andre DeGruy took a chance by hiring Lela who had no experience as a Mitigation Specialist but a desire to learn and zeal for saving a person’s life.
Lela is a nationally certified Defense Victim Outreach (DVO) specialist who has assisted victims’ family members through capital trials and appeals as well as juvenile re-sentencing proceedings. Shortly before the pandemic in 2020, she took a leap of faith and went into private practice (Donelson Enterprises), focusing on federal capital trials, re-entry support for exonerees and long-termers, as well as DVO work across the United States. Lela has served as faculty at both local and national training conferences. Lela’s goal is to expand reentry services in Mississippi and increase the number of social workers of color involved in mitigation. Lastly, but definitely not least, Lela was chosen as the recipient of the 2021 Muhammed-White Award for her excellence in mitigation over the course of her career.
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