Ask a Mitigation Specialist – December 18th

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.

Amy Williams, LCSW

Amy is a mitigation specialist in private practice and a Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Project (TxHAT) mitigation consultant. Prior to these roles, she was Chief Investigator at the Federal Public Defender’s Dallas Capital Habeas Unit and has practiced mitigation in trial, state, and federal post-conviction proceedings. She currently chairs the Diversity Subcommittee for the Texas Habeas Race Litigation Group, which is comprised of capital defense practitioners focused on researching factors impacting the hiring and retention of racially diverse talent within the Texas habeas community.