Investigator - Capital Habeas Unit

Position Description

The Office of the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California is accepting applications for the position of Investigator in its Capital Habeas Unit (CHU) for its Sacramento Office. The CHU represents individuals sentenced to death by the state in federal habeas corpus (

• 2254) and ancillary proceedings. Our clients are on Death Row in California and currently four other states. The Unit also represents individuals sentenced to death in the federal courts in
• 2255 proceedings.
  
  

Primary Job Duties: CHU investigators perform extensive fact and mitigation investigations. This includes:

• Familiarizing themselves with extensive case files (including police reports, prior legal proceedings, trial transcripts, and expert and lay reports) and identifying potential avenues of investigation/sources of information;
• Locating, interviewing, and drafting declarations of fact and mitigation witnesses, including the client’s family, friends, teachers, employers, and service providers, as well as eyewitnesses and alibi witnesses;
• Crafting exhaustive, multi-generational psychosocial histories for the Unit’s clients by gathering and interpreting records, such as medical, social services, vital records, education, employment, court, military, and law enforcement;
• Building a strong rapport with both incarcerated clients and essential mitigation witnesses through frequent visits and contact.