Opinion ID: 612544
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Trained Mitigation Specialist

Text: Even the appointment of Karpawich, a clinical psychologist who is not a trained mitigation specialist, was suspect. Although defense teams do not have a specific obligation to employ a mitigation specialist, they d[o] have an obligation to fully investigate the possible mitigation evidence available. Jells, 538 F.3d at 495. The failure to hire a trained mitigation specialist is particularly troublesome when counsel's awareness of the client's difficult background should have alerted them that further investigation by a mitigation specialist might [have] prove[n] fruitful. Id. at 496. Karpawich alerted counsel to the fact that most death-penalty investigations include a mitigation specialist, which he was not. App'x Vol. 3 at 1203 (Karpawich Aff. ¶¶ 12, 13). Based on Karpawich's experience[,]... a mitigation specialist or social worker is important for a thorough and comprehensive development of family history and collection of records. Id. at 1202 (Karpawich Aff. ¶ 8); accord id. at 1231 (Dorian Hall [7] Aff. ¶ 13) (explaining that capital defense teams generally include a mitigation specialist in addition to a psychologist). In response, the state contends that a person who disclaims specialization in the field of mitigation cannot then assert with authority that a mitigation specialist should have been appointed. The state's argument is not sound. It does not take a specialist to know that specialists exist. Even if Karpawich were qualified as a mitigation specialist, he did not fulfill that role because he was unable to collect Children's Services records and did not conduct thorough or sufficient interviews with Foust's family. Given the nature of Foust's mitigation defense and his counsel's failure either to consult regularly with Karpawich about his investigation or to conduct an independent investigation, failing to hire a trained mitigation specialist was deficient performance.