Melanie Carr

Overview

Melanie Carr is a consultant investigator mitigation specialist in civil rights and human rights cases. She also serves as a defense initiated victim outreach specialist. After graduating from Harvard in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in social anthropology Melanie moved to New Orleans to work as an investigator with a nonprofit law office that provided representation to poor people facing the death penalty. In 2002 with the help of her Echoing Green Fellowship Melanie and her colleague Colleen Francis founded A Fighting Chance. In 2007 Melanie transitioned the leadership of A Fighting Chance to a new director and moved back to her native northeast. She now lives in NYC consults on capital defense criminal defense and civil rights cases and continues her involvement in training and mentoring for investigators and mitigation specialists. Recent clients have included the Jena 6 a Guantanamo client facing capital charges in the Military Commissions a class of juveniles in detention and a class of workers facing inhumane working conditions and discrimination in Mississippi.