Community Events, Webinars
In the unique and challenging field of capital defense, our dual role encompasses fighting for our clients' lives while also facing the reality that death—whether due to natural causes, illness, or state action—may be an outcome. This complex reality raises profound questions that require examination.
Join us as we delve into a community discussion designed to provide a supportive space for capital defense teams to discuss strategies and questions including the following: How do we prepare for a client's death? How can we help our clients, teams, and importantly, ourselves prepare for the inevitable while holding onto and working for life? What do you need to know to help live in this dichotomy? What skills are you searching for?
Rita Radostitz and Constance Sheehan
Community Conversation
Rita Radostitz has served as a criminal defense attorney for her entire legal career, including many years doing post-conviction capital work in Texas. She has recently been certified as an end-of-life doula. She accompanied numerous clients through their executions while serving as defense counsel to clients in Texas, first at the Texas Resource Center and then in private practice. She currently is an attorney on the team representing Ammar al Baluchi in the 9/11 Military Commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She has also worked as a journalist, clinical professor of law, professor of non-profit management, and communications director for a large university and a number of small non-profit organizations.
Constance Sheehan, Ph.D., LCSW, received a Master of Clinical Social Work at New York University and Ph.D. at Loyola University Chicago with a research focus on Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindfulness, and Restorative Justice within the Juvenile Justice System. She completed an Interdisciplinary Fellowship in Palliative Care at the Bronx VA. Subsequently, she completed post-graduate studies at NYU’s International Trauma Studies Program, Ackerman Institute for the Family, Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Medicine program, and Harvard’s Positive Psychology in Mind/Body Medicine.
Constance has a long-standing interest in mindfulness and its integration into restorative justice and psychotherapeutic approaches and is a certified yoga instructor in restorative yoga and yoga for depression. She is fully teacher-trained in Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through UMASS Medical Center and has extensive training in the restorative justice practice of the talking circle.
Constance has served as an expert witness in multiple cases opining on the effects of trauma. She is a mitigation specialist on a legal defense team within the Department of Defense with a case in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She has several ongoing felony and capital felony cases in Cook County (Chicago) and Florida.
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Exclusive Access
Advancing Real Change (ARC), Inc. specializes in providing training and resources focused on mitigation for criminal defense practitioners and their supporters. This aligns with our commitment to ensure high-quality legal representation for clients, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Access to our training sessions and resources, available through our website and related platforms (such as Zoom, Perusall, etc.), is limited to current and prospective defense practitioners. Prosecutors and those working for prosecutorial and/or law enforcement agencies are explicitly barred from participating.
ARC, Inc. reserves the right to prohibit individuals other than criminal defense practitioners from attending certain events at its discretion. ARC, Inc. maintains the right to pursue legal or ethical complaints through state bars or other regulatory authorities against anyone who accesses our Resource Library or related ARC, Inc. platforms without the required authorization.