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The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal about American Justice
A groundbreaking new take on the American justice system from one of its unknown revolutionaries, offering a...
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A groundbreaking new take on the American justice system from one of its unknown revolutionaries, offering a powerful new vision of responsibility, punishment, and repair.
"The first book I'm aware of to pull back the curtain on a life-saving field most have never heard of: mitigation." --Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, from the foreword Elizabeth Vartkessian works with criminal defense teams as a mitigation specialist. She isn't part of the Innocence Project; her clients are often legally guilty, and often of terrible crimes. Rather, her job is to spend hundreds of hours per case talking to the parents, siblings, teachers, and neighbors of a defendant, situating their crimes in context. Founder and director of nonprofit mitigation team Advancing Real Change Inc., Vartkessian weaves powerful, gripping stories from her extraordinary career into an inspiring argument for dignity in American justice. Her unique experience has taught her that when personal or generational trauma enters the body, it finds its way out eventually, sometimes through violence. She contends that we cannot hold her clients solely responsible for their actions, nor can we continue to stomach harsh penalties that deny real justice to perpetrators and victims alike. Amid the Trump administration's record-high executions and calls to expand the use of the death penalty after decades of progress, The Deserving is required reading for a dangerous new era of rollbacks. Vartkessian offers a compelling, hope-filled vision of true rehabilitation replacing retribution.Author: Elizabeth Vartkessian
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.47h x 6.42w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9781639731398
About the Author
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 PhD in law and an MS in comparative social policy from Oxford, and BAs in philosophy and political science from George Washington University. She is the founder and director of Advancing Real Change Inc., a national nonprofit dedicated to conducting life history investigations in criminal cases. She lives in Baltimore.
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