Family history can be key factor in defense

By DEBBIE GARLICKI

Some prosecutors see a growing trend toward convicted murderers seeking ways to escape accountability — and the death penalty.

More defendants, they say, are claiming in appeals that they had mental health problems, learning disabilities, abusive childhoods and dysfunctional families.

“You keep hearing the same head injury arguments over and over again,” said Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons. “I’ve heard the words ‘organic brain damage’ more recently in death-penalty appeals than anywhere else.”

Assistant federal defenders with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, capital habeas corpus unit, say information about a defendant and his past is important mitigating evidence that could have made the difference between the defendant getting the death penalty or life in prison.