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.