Where we are born, how many times we were forced to relocate, and the kinds of things happening, or not happening, in our communities, our schools and other institutions in those locations are all important to give context to a client's life and choices.

But how do we tell those stories at sentencing?

Thankfully, there's an amazing expert that can do it with compassion, grace and an unparralled skill set: Social Geogrpaher, Dr. Julie Urbanik!

Her outside the box approach to mitigation is something that should be on every defense attorney's radar.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The connection between geography and criminal defense;
• Explanation of “mitigation geonarratives”;
• Explanation of “body maps”;
• Explanation of “memory walks”;
• Other uses of video to tell the mitigation story;

LINKS:

Julie’s website is www.julieurbanik.com

Email contact: [email protected]

Here is the link to Dr. Urbanik's peer-reviewed publication on the topics we discussed, including several examples of her work: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291121000553

Lastly, we mentioned a couple of other podcasts with incredible legal professionals that can attest to Dr. Urbanik's great work:

Episode 58 - Life in the Shadow of Death with Atty Cyndy Short:

https://youtu.be/-0Dsy8pTt_Q?si=g_al0g4FO5k7nZaO

Episode 28: The Heart & the Head: Holistic Sentencing with Mitigaiton Specialist Victoria Rusk

https://youtu.be/7vtaFT9TKl4?si=vqnrwEQDMz32ipHg