APDA Conference 2026: Full Schedule

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

3:15pm MST

Humanizing Our Clients Through Mitigation

Wednesday June 17, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm MST

Over 90% of defendants plead or are convicted at trial. Given these statistics, there is no question that sentencing is the most important event in a criminal case. Getting our clients the best possible outcome at sentencing means presenting their story in the most compelling way to make a judge care. This translates to mitigation not just being necessary, but perhaps the most important part of a defense attorney’s job from day one. This presentation will provide an overview of how to collect mitigation in each of your client’s cases, as well as how to package it altogether to tell a compelling story.

Speakers

Teresa Boden

Social Worker, Pima Co. Public Defender

Teresa has been with the Legal Defender for three years. She works directly with clients to develop their social histories. She is particularly skilled at getting clients to open up and tell the most difficult aspects of their personal stories. Teresa takes that information and produces... Read More →

Cynthia Yializis

Attorney, Federal Public Defender

Cynthia Yializis is an assistant federal public defender for the District of Arizona in Tucson. Cynthia joined this office in March 2024, after having worked as an assistant public defender for Pima County for ten years. Prior to starting her career in indigent defense, Cynthia practiced... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm MST
TBA

Mitigation

CLE Hours 1.5

10:00am MST

Overview of Using Genetics in Mitigation

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

TBA

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