About this Event
Join us at Kepler’s to hear Dr Elizabeth Vartkessian discuss The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal about American Justice. Dr Vartkessian's clients are guilty of the most heinous crimes. But as she tells it, everyone has someone who loves them. Even people who have committed M**der.
As a mitigator hired by criminal defence lawyers in the hope of reducing the severity of their clients' punishments, Dr Vartkessian has spent hundreds of hours per case talking to mothers, siblings, teachers, and neighbours of a defendant, situating their crimes into context. As a detective of the accused person's life, she learns details about familial behaviours and relationship patterns, community settings - and what she finds, every single time, is that when personal or generational trauma enters the body, it finds its way out eventually.
In this fascinating book, packed with the moving, real-life stories of the clients she has worked with over the past 20 years, The Deserving describes the vital role a mitigator plays in developing an understanding of how her clients arrived at the point in their life where they committed their crime. We learn that very few people (if any) are born evil, but that the forces that shape us as we grow up can lead to the most tragic of outcomes.
Dr Vartkessian will be in conversation with journalist Angie Coiro.
About the Speaker
Mitigation specialist Elizabeth Vartkessian has been investigating the life histories of those facing the most severe penalties possible in the United States since 2004. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Oxford, an M.S. in Comparative Social Policy from Oxford, and B.A.s in Philosophy and Political Science from the George Washington University, where she was a Presidential Scholar. In 2015 she was awarded the J.M.K. Innovation Prize for her efforts to bring mitigation to all areas of the criminal justice process. In 2018, the City Council of Baltimore passed a resolution praising her efforts to bring human dignity into the justice system. After launching a successful private practice, Vartkessian and several colleagues created Advancing Real Change, Inc., a national non-profit dedicated to conducting life history investigations in criminal cases. She has spoken widely and written on the criminal legal system in the Baltimore Sun and numerous peer-reviewed journals and law reviews. She lives in Baltimore.
COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS: We strongly encourage attendees to wear masks at our events, although they will NOT be required. We will have masks available for attendees who want them. Do NOT attend the event if you, or any member of your family, have any respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, runny nose, and/or sore throat), or have had a significant exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
ACCESSIBILITY: We never want cost to be a barrier to admission for our community. Please email events [at] keplers [dot] org if you would like to attend this event but cannot afford a ticket. To request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for this event, please email events [at] keplers [dot] org at least one week prior to the event.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Kepler's Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, United States
USD 11.49 to USD 45.09
