Ask a Mitigation Specialist – June 17

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Holly Clifton

Holly Clifton joined the Arizona Capital Representation Project (ACRP) in 2013 as an investigator and mitigation specialist. She is a licensed attorney and obtained her law degree in 2004 from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Holly worked as a trial attorney with the New Mexico Public Defenders Office for seven years before relocating to Tucson, Arizona in 2011. After relocating, Holly decided to explore investigation as an alternative career path and began working with a Tucson investigation firm. Soon after, she partnered with the Project and began her work with capital and JLWOP clients.

Since 1989, the Arizona Capital Representation Project has provided assistance in some form to most inmates on Arizona’s death row and has directly represented dozens of death-sentenced prisoners. The Project provides free consulting (including client relations, issue identification, legal research, drafting pleadings, developing and distributing general legal materials, hosting moot courts in preparation for oral arguments, and referring appropriate expert assistance) to capital defendants and their lawyers. In addition, the Project hosts free legal training seminars, which provide capital defense lawyers with the education and tools necessary for competent representation. The Project also provides community education about Arizona’s death penalty.

Miriam Bankston

Miriam Bankston began working as a mitigation specialist five years ago, after completing her Master of Social Work and spending a year as a therapist working with adolescents. Since making the professional shift, Miriam has been at the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defenders in the Middle District of Alabama, where she was recently promoted to Chief Investigator. Among her team and others who work with her, she is known to be a dynamic leader who is devoted to her clients.

Miriam is committed to best practices and to keeping her clients and their humanity at the center of their cases. As the chief investigator, she has set standards for mitigation investigation in the unit, and changed the way the office interacts with clients, ensuring that teams fully consider their clients when making decisions. Miriam is also a mentor to her teammates, regularly offering support and guidance on casework and managing team dynamics. She is dedicated to supporting diverse mitigation specialists and fostering culturally responsive practices in mitigation. She does all this with compassion and professional sensitivity.

A participant in the ACLU’s Scharlette Holdman Mitigation Mentorship Program for 2021-2022, Miriam also regularly leads workshops and training sessions at the national and local level on working with clients and their families, unpacking difficult mental health diagnoses, and other topics.

Miriam continues to seek opportunities to improve her skills, support her clients, and raise the quality of mitigation in the field.