Is There Scientific Research That Ties Trauma to Violence Later On?

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mitigation specialists are often researching any fact that can mitigate the crime and evoke mercy from the jury. That could be childhood trauma, a brain injury or something very physical and scientific. "There is nascent brain science that gets us there," she says.

Should past trauma prevent a convicted killer from being executed? The Marshall Project’s Maurice Chammah reports on “mitigation specialists” who try to save the lives of death row inmates by investigating their histories.

This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Matt Collette, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King.

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