Criminal defense
Sentencing mitigation pieces for defense counsel
A sentencing mitigation piece shows the judge who the defendant is, what has changed, and what the plan is, with a record behind each claim. Scrollbrief builds them as a private scrolling page with a PDF twin for $5,000 to $15,000, in two to three weeks.
An established tool, in a form that holds documents
Sentencing mitigation videos have been in use for years. A 2018 report put their cost at $5,000 to $25,000 on average and noted a film festival for them at the federal public defenders’ annual training. Criminal Legal News They are made for one reader, the sentencing judge.
A scrollbrief serves the same reader and adds what film leaves out: the certificates, pay stubs, treatment records and letters, each one a tap away. Short witness clips can sit inside it. Defense teams also call this a mitigation package or a sentencing presentation. How a scrolling page compares with a video
What goes in
The structure follows Professor Regina Austin’s study of what makes sentencing videos work. Regina Austin, Penn Law
- The person. What the defendant did not choose: youth, health, family, hardship.
- What happened. The offense, told plainly, with the defendant’s own account of responsibility.
- What changed. Concrete steps already taken, each with a record. Promises stay out.
- Who vouches. Reliable witnesses: an employer, a teacher, a counselor, clergy.
- The world around them. Places, work and relationships, shown on screen.
- The plan. Where the person will live and work, and who holds them to it.
- The ask. The sentence requested and the factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) it serves.
How it reaches the judge
Courts differ. Some judges welcome mitigation media and others decline to consider it. Above the Law Defense counsel chooses the format and the filing route. The PDF twin carries the whole piece on paper, so nothing depends on a judge opening a link.
Beyond the sentencing hearing
The same piece can support plea negotiations, clemency and parole. Austin describes the form as visual advocacy for every phase from charging to clemency. Austin, The Case for Sentencing Mitigation Videos
Care for the people who appear
Family members and other witnesses in these pieces are often vulnerable. Each one gives informed consent, their privacy is weighed with counsel, and their words are checked with them for accuracy before the piece is filed.
The sample
The sentencing sample is a composite with invented facts, labeled as a composite on every screen. Real sentencing material is about private people, and it stays private. The sample is third in the build order.