EMD Sister Recognized for Her Work in Forensic Social Work

When a Baton Rouge prosecutor has a lot of people on Death Row who are not serial killers, what were Shawn Gillis’s chances?  Slim to none until forensic social worker Sr. Kathy Broussard, OP, who is a Eucharistic Missionary of St. Dominic, spent four years helping prepare for his trial.

The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Louisiana Public Defenders Association at their annual banquet recently recognized Sr. Kathy and her two coworkers as “Trustees of Freedom.”  They are on staff at the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana in New Orleans.  Their work as a mitigation team helped spare the life of a convicted serial killer:Sean Gillis, who was seriously mentally ill.

What is a forensic socialworker? Forensic social workers work to assure defendents of their full access to legal rights. This includes anything ordered by the court. It does not mean working for people who are dead, as you might think.

"All we have between 5 and 11 clients at a time,"' said Kathy, in a distinctive New Orleans accent. "'Sean's case was complex and difficult. It was a difficult emotional case for me."

"When someone is charged with a capital crime, there are really two trials: the guilt/innocence phase and the penalty phase. We identify mitgating circumstances such as mental retardation, or mental illness that could impact the sentance. Our hope is to avoid the death penalty. We gather all the evidence and wok with families and defendents."

The head of the Capital Defense Project, Kerry Cuccia, likewise honored by his legal peers, said that Sr. Kathy’s biweekly trips to Baton Rouge made possible the jury’s sentencing Shawn Gillis to a life sentence because he was mentally ill. Together with counsel, the mitigation team gathered facts to show the jury the human side of a terrible criminal. Even though the defendent was guilty, the group was successful in avoiding the death penalty. " The death penalty only commits more violence, " said Kathy.

Most people do not know what to do with this kind of case and indigent people cannot afford the legal defence they need, thatfrequently takes years. Over the years, Capital Defense Project successfully avoided the death penalty for 44 people, over the last nine years.