Ask a Mitigation Specialist – December 16

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.

If you need to speak with an Advisor but are unavailable during core Ask A Mitigation Specialist hours (3 p.m.–5:10 p.m. ET), or if you are an international practitioner who can only meet outside the times offered, please contact Reginald Lanier at [email protected]. We will do our best to accommodate requests outside of standard hours; however, availability for such calls cannot be guaranteed.

Heather Barrow

Heather began her career over 26 years ago working with Bryan Stevenson at EJI while still a college student earning her degree in History at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Heather worked on many projects during her two stints at EJI including race and poverty, pardon and parole revocation, direct rehabilitation and restoration with clients, discrimination in jury selection, reform of death in prison sentences for children, along with investigation and mitigation in post-conviction capital cases. 

She has been a self-employed mitigation expert in both capital trial and post-conviction cases in several states throughout the Southeast. She has worked as an Investigator & Mitigation Specialist in a post-conviction office in Tennessee, as Chief Investigator at a state post-conviction office in Florida, and at a Federal CHU in Florida. Recently, Heather worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center. She was fortunate enough to work on multiple matters including censorship in education and was the investigator in the lawsuit filed by multiple nonprofits challenging the State of Louisiana imprisoning children on the former death row at Angola. That lawsuit led to the removal of children from Angola prison. 

Heather has worked on hundreds of capital cases in both trial and post-conviction.

She is currently a Special Investigator and Mitigation Specialist with the Kansas Capital Habeas Unit.

Lisa Eager

Lisa Eager is a mitigation specialist, private investigator, and Defense Victim Outreach (DVO) specialist based in Northern California. Areas of specialization include capital and non-capital mitigation, DVO/Restorative Justice, and mitigation for Youthful Offender/Franklin proceedings. She has worked on behalf of indigent individuals at county, state and federal Public Defender agencies throughout the United States. In addition to direct casework, Lisa provides trainings, consultations and mentoring to the defense community.