APDA Conference 2026: Full Schedule

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

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10:00am MST

Overview of Using Genetics in Mitigation

Thursday June 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am MST

This course explores the growing use of behavioral and psychiatric genetic information in legal settings, including research linking genetic variants to disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, and depression. It introduces key concepts like epigenetics and intergenerational trauma and their potential relevance to mitigation. Participants will gain a foundational understanding of how this emerging science may be used in defense advocacy.

Speakers

Tennie Martin

Attorney, Federal Public Defender

After being frustrated as a CPA, Tennie went to law school to become a public defender and has never looked back, She was at the Maricopa Co. Public Defender where she rose to Chief of Appeals before going onto wok at the Capital Habeas Unit at the Tampa Feederal Defender .

Donna Lee Elm

Attorney, Federal Public Defender

Donna Lee Elm was in the Maricopa County Public Defender Office for 12 years before going to the Phoenix Federal Defender Office. She later was appointed to be the Federal DEfender for the Middle DIstrict of Florida. Upone retirement, Donna does fedeeral appeals.

Thursday June 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am MST
TBA

Mitigation

CLE Hours 1.5

3:15pm MST

Humanizing Your Client Through Mitigation in Non-Capital Cases

Thursday June 18, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm MST

TBA

This course is designed to educate attorneys about rule 6.7 a which allows for mitigation to be paid for at county expense in non capital cases. It also delves into the purpose and scope of mitigation, statutory and non-statutory mitigation, when the best time is to bring a mitigation specialist into a case, and how clients and attorneys both benefit from mitigation.

Speakers

Sheri Castillo

Mitigation Specialist, On Your Side Mitigation

I started my career in 1995 when I began working as a surveillance officer with Maricopa County Adult Probation. After that I went to work as a Youth Corrections Officer at Adobe Mountain and then an Inmate Classification Counselor with the Maricopa County sheriff's Department before... Read More →

Thursday June 18, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm MST
TBA

Mitigation