On April 6, the Alabama Reflector reported on some of the ways the state of Alabama deviates from American Bar Association recommendations for capital cases, and how that can affect outcomes for poor defendants facing the most severe penalty in the state.
The article features the case of a former ARC client, Cory Maples, to explain some of the ways that failing to adhere to the standard of care in capital cases can go wrong, and how different the outcome can be when an individual receives the defense, including mitigation investigation, to which they are entitled.
“You are really down to the luck of the draw, and you really hope that you end up getting someone who is going to do everything possible to help you secure the best outcome and get you to a safer place,” ARC Executive Director Liz Vartkessian explains in the article.
ARC opened an office in Alabama this year to help address the need for standards-based mitigation investigation in capital cases in order to avoid such disparities. By working side by side with local defense teams, training attorneys and mitigation specialists, and becoming a permanent member of the local community, we are taking steps to ensure that every individual facing an extreme sentence has the opportunity for a just outcome.