Testifying About Mitigation: When Social Workers and Other Mental Health Professionals Face Aggressive Cross-Examination

Abstract

Aggressive cross-examinations can be challenging and difficult for social workers and other mental health professionals who testify in court as expert witnesses. Although several sources of guidance for expert witnesses are available, responses to cross-examination can be understood especially clearly in case-specific contexts. This article describes the nature of mitigation assessments and presents cross-examination of a social worker offering psychosocial mitigation testimony in the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial. The cross-examination questions and answers are discussed in several categories, including challenges to objectivity, challenges to thoroughness and competence, challenges to validity, and differing findings by another expert. Each set of questions and answers is accompanied by interpretative comments about how to cope with the specific cross-examination strategies.