Susan Marcus, an attorney and mitigation specialist, sits down as part of Stephen Bright's Yale course Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage to describe how a capital defense team builds the case for a defendant's life. She walks through what a mitigation investigation actually involves: tracing family history, medical records, and social background to explain how a person ended up facing a death sentence. Marcus draws on a specific case, a defendant from Vietnam, to show how cultural background, immigration history, and wartime trauma can shape a mitigation strategy. The interview format keeps the focus on her firsthand casework rather than abstract legal doctrine, giving a practitioner's view of what happens between conviction and sentencing in a capital trial.