213.482.1780
piila@piila.com

Capital Litigation / Mitigation Specialist

Repeatedly lauded for its work on death penalty defense cases, PII has assisted defense counsel in more than 40 capital murder cases in California, Arizona, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and New York, in both state and federal courts.

As guilt/innocence phase investigators and mitigation specialists, PII has been involved in successful outcomes at both the trial and appellate levels. PII’s president, Keith Rohman, has been appointed by federal and state courts as an expert witness on standards for mitigation investigation, and has testified frequently in evidentiary hearings.

PII has also investigated wrongful convictions, and after the individual’s release, worked with civil counsel seeking damages.  In addition, PII works with the Loyola Law School Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic in Los Angeles as a consultant, trainer, and investigator.

Case in Point

On July 23, 2015, a Seattle jury voted unanimously to spare the life of Christopher Monfort, marking the close of more than five years of investigative work by PII. Soon after Monfort’s arrest, PII’s president, Keith Rohman, joined the legal defense team as the mitigation specialist, beginning the painstaking work of chronicling Monfort’s life story.  Following the verdict, jurors told the defense team that they closely reviewed the social history Rohman prepared, and that it played a key role in their decision. Read Seattle Times story here.

Case in Point

In August 2010, nearly a decade of work by a team of PII investigators was rewarded when Cochise County (Arizona) Superior Court Judge Wallace R. Hoggatt vacated the death sentence of defendant Kyle Sharp, who was sentenced in 1997 for the murder of Judith Coughlin. Judge Hoggatt cited PII’s work as “instrumental in identifying and locating the witnesses… who testified concerning the horrific abuse… inflicted upon Kyle Sharp over the course of many years when he was a child.” Read Story Here.