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. Complete the registration form to request an appointment.
Update 5/15/25: All time slots for this call have been reserved.
Lela Hubbard and Scarlet Nerad
Update 5/15/25: All time slots for this call have been reserved.
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.
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.
Scarlet Nerad
Scarlet Nerad has been mitigating on behalf of men and women facing the death penalty for 25 years. She co-founded Community Resource Initiative in 2007 to continue to investigate death penalty cases at the trial and post-conviction proceedings and train others while creating and implementing initiatives designed to combat the risk factors in children, we now recognize left our clients most at risk for incarceration.
Ask a Mitigation Specialist, a resource program that allows defenders to meet directly and privately with a mitigation specialist for…
Amy Williams & Heather Barrow
Ask a Mitigation Specialist, a resource program that allows defenders to meet directly and privately with a mitigation specialist for…
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Ask a Mitigation Specialist, a resource program that allows defenders to meet directly and privately with a mitigation specialist for…
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