Laurel Brandstetter Quoted in The Morning Call

Partner Laurel Brandstetter was quoted in the article, “Lawyer Seeks Grace Packer’s Mental Health Records,” published by The Morning Call on June 10, 2017. The article discusses the criminal case against Sara Packer for the murder of her adopted daughter, Grace Packer. Packer’s lawyers have requested records from Warwick House, a residential treatment center where Grace spent a year, but the Warwick House has argued that releasing them would violate Pennsylvania’s Mental Health Procedures Act.

Ms. Brandstetter explained that in capital cases, Pennsylvania law allows for the introduction of a wide variety of mitigating circumstances and that the introduction of such records could be relevant to the Defendant’s mental state at the time of the murder.