Chris Chang
Founder, Cultural Expert, Mitigation Specialist and Fact Investigator
255 Research and Investigation was founded in 2012 by Chris Chang. Chris worked for over 7 years as Senior Investigator at the London-based legal action charity Reprieve. During his time there he worked both in Reprieve’s Secret Prisons and Death Penalty teams. He has worked on over 50 cases of individuals detained in Guantanamo and over 40 Death Penalty cases.
Chris was part of the first Guantanamo defense team to travel to pre-revolution Tunisia, where he and others conducted groundbreaking investigation on behalf of the Tunisian Guantanamo detainees. Investigation work that he conducted on behalf of one of the youngest prisoners in Guantanamo contributed largely to the victory in his habeas corpus case and his subsequent release from Guantanamo. Chris’s investigation work on behalf of Guantanamo detainees who were in a factual and legal black hole has been a major factor in the release of many prisoners held there.
His capital case investigation has contributed to death sentences being averted in several cases, and also helped to obtain new sentencing hearings for some individuals. He has led capital case investigation missions in the US, Europe and the Caribbean and in his role as senior investigator at Reprieve Chris co-wrote a chapter on investigation for a manual produced by Reprieve, with financial assistance from the EU, to instruct US attorneys representing individuals facing capital charges or those already on Death Row in the US that have ties to Europe.
Chris has extensive experience conducting fact investigation and mitigation investigation across Europe, North and Central Africa, the U.S, Central America and the Caribbean.
In addition to being a skilled investigator Chris is a skilled advocate with experience conducting multi-level advocacy for the individuals whose cases he has worked on: from grassroots public speaking at press conferences, conferences, rallies and campaign events, to multi level government advocacy.
Chris has also had extensive media experience and has appeared on Sky News, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Radio France International, France 2, Russia Today, and on local Television and Radio broadcasts, and in Internet and print media in Germany, Italy, Norway, Chad, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
Chris possesses a very natural understanding of cultural competency and its undeniable necessity in the field of criminal defense investigation and moves effectively through diverse communities, gains trust with ease and gets results, plain and simple. A natural communicator, upon his graduation from university in 2000 he was awarded the European Institute of Education and Social Policy Prize for the best interpreter of the year.
Chris now continues his investigation work through 255 Research and Investigation but is also working actively to address the challenges in the field of criminal defense investigation through partnerships with other legal professionals, academics and NGOs.
Chris is also now widely regarded as a global expert on culture, and takes a unique yet highly effective cultural approach to the work that he is involved in. There is no client, no community without culture and for Chris in the work that we do culture must never be an afterthought.
And for Chris, still, investigation continues to be conducted badly, he continues to be committed to changing that.
