ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of energy. Join Dispatches, a publication that spotlights wrongdoing across the nation, to obtain our tales in your inbox each week.
Watch ABC15 Arizona’s collection “Searching for Dying,” based mostly on our joint investigation into Maricopa County’s dealing with of dying penalty circumstances.
Reporting Highlights
Many Costs, Few Sentences: Maricopa County has ceaselessly pursued the dying penalty however hardly ever secured dying sentences. In practically 350 circumstances over 20 years, simply 13% led to a dying sentence.
Modifications Wanted: A former county lawyer and consultants say the numbers sign the necessity for a extra deliberate and clear course of for deciding which circumstances warrant capital expenses.
Resuming Executions: The county’s dealing with of the dying penalty is newly related as Arizona has resumed executions after a two-year pause to evaluation issues with deadly injection protocols.
These highlights had been written by the reporters and editors who labored on this story.
In 2010, Vikki Valencia’s 24-year-old brother, Triny Rey Lozano, died in an nearly unimaginably brutal approach. He was shot within the head a number of occasions, dumped on a distant highway outdoors Phoenix and set on hearth.
Valencia noticed just one approach prosecutors may carry her household justice: The killer ought to get the dying penalty.
Maricopa County prosecutors constructed a capital homicide case in opposition to the person they are saying killed Lozano, Victor Hernandez.
Valencia knew it could take a very long time however believed it could be value it. Over practically 10 years, she visited the courthouse a whole bunch of occasions, ceaselessly lacking work to attend hearings the place she revisited traumatic photographs of the crime scene.
“The dying penalty was the factor that we needed most as a result of we thought it was going to offer us justice,” she stated in a current interview.
Throughout jury choice, the case stalled due to a possible battle of curiosity involving a prosecutor who had beforehand represented Hernandez. Years later, a second trial adopted. As that jury was deliberating, prosecutors dropped the dying penalty. 9 years after he was charged with killing Lozano, Hernandez was discovered responsible and sentenced to life in jail.
Though the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Workplace has traditionally pursued the dying penalty at excessive charges, its efforts hardly ever end in a dying sentence.
ProPublica and ABC15 Arizona reviewed practically 350 circumstances over a 20-year interval wherein Maricopa County prosecutors determined the crimes warranted the dying penalty, and located that 13% led to a dying sentence. In a lot of the circumstances, defendants both pleaded responsible and obtained a lesser sentence or prosecutors modified course, ending their pursuit of the dying penalty.
In 76 trials wherein Maricopa County juries deliberated a dying sentence, 41, or 54%, yielded one.
By comparability, an evaluation of dying penalty circumstances initiated in Harris County, Texas, from 2004 by 2023, discovered prosecutors took fewer circumstances, 24, to trial and had been extra profitable, acquiring a dying sentence 75% of the time, in accordance with figures offered by an area advocacy group. Information over an extended time interval additionally reveals that federal prosecutors nationwide have obtained dying sentences at the next price than in Maricopa County, in accordance with the Federal Dying Penalty Useful resource Counsel Venture.
Pursuing the dying penalty is among the many most consequential choices that prosecutors make. Every case may be litigated throughout the tenures of a number of county attorneys and may price greater than 1,000,000 {dollars}. Within the a whole bunch of Maricopa County dying penalty circumstances that prosecutors have pursued since 2007, the price of furnishing the accused with an enough protection has totaled $289 million. However the outcomes within the county increase questions concerning the workplace’s judgment in its pursuit of the final word punishment, in accordance with court docket data and interviews with greater than three dozen individuals together with attorneys, former prosecutors, relations of victims and defendants, jurors and consultants.
Former County Lawyer Rick Romley stated there must be a evaluation of capital charging choices after ProPublica and ABC15 shared the newsrooms’ findings with him. Romley questioned whether or not prosecutors are searching for dying “within the applicable circumstances.”
“The jury is sort of a barometer of whether or not or not you’re doing an excellent job,” he stated. “And fairly frankly … if it was a college grade, that’s known as an F.”
The workplace, now headed by Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, declined our request for an interview. A spokesperson responded to written questions, emphasizing that “just one” individual in Maricopa County — Mitchell — makes the choice to hunt the dying penalty and that every case is reviewed all through the method, as info adjustments.
Maricopa County’s and the state of Arizona’s dealing with of the dying penalty have been questioned for years. A 2016 report by the now-defunct Truthful Punishment Venture, a authorized and academic analysis group at Harvard College, cited the county, amongst different locations, as having a historical past of “overzealous prosecutors, insufficient protection and a sample of racial bias and exclusion.”
As well as, protection attorneys for a dying row prisoner in 2018 petitioned unsuccessfully to the U.S. Supreme Court docket, claiming that Arizona’s statute was overly broad as a result of nearly each homicide may be charged as a capital case. And two former prosecutors and appeals court docket judges wrote in a 2022 legislation journal article that state officers, slightly than particular person counties, ought to make all dying penalty choices to make sure the method is “much less arbitrary.”
Maricopa County prosecutors’ dealing with of dying penalty circumstances is newly related as Arizona has resumed executions after a two-year pause. The state, which has 111 individuals on dying row, halted executions in 2014, after Joseph Wooden was injected repeatedly over two hours, gasping greater than 600 occasions earlier than dying, in accordance with a reporter’s account. The state executed three individuals in 2022 however paused after the newly elected Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a evaluation of the deadly injection course of. Hobbs dismissed the retired federal Justice of the Peace she had appointed to conduct the evaluation after he concluded there isn’t any humane technique to execute individuals.
Valencia and her household felt the case had put their lives on maintain. Wanting again, she stated it appeared odd that the prosecution, which had pursued dying for thus lengthy, determined to not as soon as the result was shut. (Prosecutors declined to touch upon the case.)
However as Valencia discovered, there’s little transparency across the course of in Maricopa County. Though the ultimate determination to hunt dying is made by the county lawyer, every case is vetted by a little bit identified panel, the Capital Overview Committee. The county lawyer’s workplace refused to speak in confidence to ProPublica and ABC15 who sits on the panel, how they vote on the circumstances being thought of for the dying penalty and even which circumstances they evaluation.
The workplace stated in a press release that the method ends not with the county lawyer’s workplace however with a trial, which is “all achieved in public, in an open courtroom.” The workplace additionally stated that it’s profitable in prosecuting capital circumstances and comparisons to Harris County may very well be deceptive as a result of they ignore the “particulars and intricacies of particular person circumstances.”
Establishing a committee is mostly higher than particular person judgments, however the high quality of the choices will depend on the people concerned, stated Robert Dunham, former director of the Dying Penalty Data Middle, a bunch that shares information and evaluation on capital punishment and ceaselessly highlights points with the system.
“Anybody who says that they’ve a good course of and is unwilling to say what that course of is, is anyone who doesn’t have a good course of,” Dunham stated.
Vikki Valencia and her household waited practically 9 years for her brother’s killer to be convicted. Close to the tip, prosecutors stopped searching for the dying penalty.
Credit score:
Ash Ponders for ProPublica
“I Must Run It by The Man”
When Romley, a Republican, was first elected Maricopa County lawyer in 1989, deputy prosecutors in one of many nation’s largest counties determined whether or not to hunt the dying penalty on their very own.
Among the many first adjustments Romley made was to foster extra deliberation. He created the Capital Overview Committee to judge circumstances and suggest whether or not to pursue the dying penalty. He nonetheless had the ultimate say, however he believed {that a} group of veteran prosecutors would apply the legislation extra constantly and suggest solely circumstances that warranted the final word punishment.
“Searching for the dying penalty is a momentous determination that you simply’ve acquired to make,” Romley stated. “I needed to guarantee that we had been ferreting out all of the details, that we made certain that judgment wasn’t being skewed by private biases.”
Romley served 4 phrases and determined to not search a fifth, leaving workplace in 2004. His successor was Andrew Thomas, a Republican lawyer and creator, who ran as a law-and-order conservative vowing to crack down on unlawful immigration and impose harder sentences. After two years, Thomas had practically doubled the variety of dying penalty prosecutions, incomes Maricopa County the excellence of searching for dying greater than nearly some other jurisdiction within the nation.
Critics stated Thomas sought the dying penalty for crimes that didn’t warrant it — together with a case of vehicular murder. The defendant in that case, David Szymanski, had a blood-alcohol content material practically twice the authorized restrict and cocaine in his system when he drove the fallacious approach on a freeway and killed a 22-year-old man.
A police evaluation discovered that officers had violated division coverage whereas pursuing Szymanski. Thomas relented greater than a 12 months later, and the Capital Overview Committee beneficial the capital cost be withdrawn. Szymanski pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
The sufferer’s mom informed the Arizona Republic, “We’ve by no means needed the dying penalty.”
Kenneth Everett, who was a protection lawyer on capital circumstances for the Maricopa County Workplace of the Authorized Advocate throughout Thomas’ tenure, informed the American Bar Affiliation’s ABA Journal in 2010 that it was clear choices on the circumstances had been made solely by Thomas. “Once I begged for a deal, all the prosecutors would say, ‘I’ve to run it by the person,’” he stated. “Thomas definitely had the final word energy. And if he stated no, you had been going to trial. And he normally stated no.”
The Arizona Supreme Court docket convened a activity pressure to handle case delays amid a scarcity of certified capital protection attorneys.
Thomas responded to criticism of the delays by blaming protection attorneys for drawing out proceedings and the courts for failing to implement speedy trial guidelines. He wrote in an Arizona Republic opinion piece, “I’ve sought the dying penalty in applicable circumstances realizing juries make the final word determination and believing they need to have this feature.”
Thomas gained a second time period however resigned in 2010 to pursue an unsuccessful bid for state lawyer normal. He was later disbarred for misconduct and political prosecutions of county officers. Thomas, who didn’t reply to requests for remark, stated on the time that he was “working to combat corruption.”
After Thomas’ resignation, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Romley to serve out the time period. Again in his previous job, Romley reviewed the 120 capital circumstances the workplace was pursuing on the time. He determined to not search the dying penalty in 11 of them, together with a case wherein a 4-month-old baby was discovered lifeless at an in-home day care. The health worker had concluded the kid died of blunt pressure trauma, however Romley stated he introduced in medical consultants who disputed that and located the accidents the kid suffered may have been brought on by an sickness.
In court docket minutes of a listening to to drop the dying penalty within the case, the Capital Overview Committee is famous as having voted 8-0 to dismiss the case, which was by no means refiled. However the weight of the cost on the defendant, Lisa Randall, is obvious in court docket paperwork. Over the three years she was out and in of jail, her marriage fell aside and she or he misplaced her home, in accordance with court docket paperwork. Randall couldn’t be reached for remark.
“When you allege dying, the entire sport adjustments,” Romley stated. “So many extra sources go into that individual case.”
Former County Lawyer Rick Romley created the Capital Overview Committee within the early Nineteen Nineties to judge potential dying penalty circumstances.
Credit score:
Gerard Watson/ABC15
“They Ought to Present Among the Bravery That They Count on Us to Present”
As soon as a prosecutor decides to hunt the dying penalty, the stakes rise. The courts and victims’ households face a lengthier course of, and jurors can face intense scrutiny.
The court docket appoints two protection attorneys, together with an investigator and a mitigation specialist. (In different circumstances, defendants have just one lawyer.) The protection can also be given extra time to arrange, to permit for an examination of the defendant’s background to seek out sympathetic components that might mitigate a dying sentence.
Capital trials devour extra time as a result of they include three elements: A jury first decides if the defendant is responsible; then jurors contemplate aggravating circumstances that might make the defendant eligible or ineligible for a dying sentence. Lastly, the jury decides if the sentence must be dying or life in jail.
It’s unclear how a lot the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Workplace spends prosecuting capital circumstances. When ProPublica and ABC15 requested the workplace for a breakdown, a spokesperson stated that the workplace doesn’t monitor spending on dying penalty circumstances.
However since 2007, the county has spent practically $289 million on protection for capital circumstances. Final 12 months, the county spent $26 million, greater than any 12 months since 2007, in accordance with the Maricopa County Workplace of Public Protection Providers.
In Oklahoma, a research launched in 2017 discovered that capital circumstances price, on common, 3 times greater than noncapital circumstances.
Jodi Arias made headlines in 2013 when she was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend. Prosecutors sought the dying penalty twice, and jurors deadlocked each occasions. Arias was finally sentenced to life in jail. The 2 trials price $3.2 million, together with the protection and prosecution, in accordance with officers on the time.
In the course of the 20 years examined by ProPublica and ABC15, juries in 35 circumstances both voted for all times, deadlocked, decided the circumstances didn’t qualify for dying or discovered the defendant not responsible. In 41 circumstances, jurors beneficial the dying penalty.
Frank Baumgartner, a College of North Carolina political science professor, was stunned Maricopa County juries disagreed with prosecutors 46% of the time in capital circumstances. Prosecutors would save taxpayers cash by exercising extra discretion over which circumstances they pursue, Baumgartner stated. In addition they seem like out of step with public opinion within the county, provided that juries disagree with them so ceaselessly on the dying penalty. “They’re not in sync with their local people,” he stated.
Individuals who served on capital juries within the county informed ProPublica and ABC15 that they’d traumatic experiences. In the course of the choice course of, potential jurors are requested private questions in open court docket, making them really feel weak. Some have had their identities revealed by jurors who disagree with them.
A juror in a high-profile Maricopa County homicide case who requested to not be named due to security issues known as the expertise “one of many worst of my life.” As soon as the juror discovered it was a dying penalty case, the stress triggered intense abdomen ache. “It’s the very best penalty within the land, and I don’t suppose that it must be utilized evenly,” the previous juror stated.
Given what jurors go although, prosecutors must be clear about their decision-making, the juror stated.
“They need to present a number of the bravery that they count on us to indicate,” the previous juror stated of the secretive committee. “You ask us to do that, to place our life on maintain, to undergo this, not share it with anyone. Then present a number of the bravery that you simply maintain us to, and be accountable like we’d be accountable if we had been caught not following any of the principles.”
In 2019, Myla Fairchild served as a juror in a case in opposition to the person accused of murdering Gilbert police Lt. Eric Shuhandler, who was killed after pulling over a pickup truck. Christopher Redondo, a passenger within the truck, shot Shuhandler within the face, setting off a 50-mile chase, prosecutors stated. Fairchild stated she voted in opposition to the dying penalty due to Redondo’s psychological capability and lengthy historical past of psychological sickness. Redondo was convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in jail. Afterwards, annoyed jurors informed the media Fairchild’s title.
She wasn’t afforded the identical privateness because the prosecutors on the evaluation committee who beneficial the dying penalty within the first place, she stated.
“You’re not protected,” she stated.
The Maricopa County Superior Court docket in downtown Phoenix the place capital circumstances are tried
Credit score:
Gerard Watson/ABC15
“A Complete Disservice”
ProPublica and ABC15 requested the biggest prosecutorial places of work in Arizona and throughout the nation how they determine whether or not to hunt the dying penalty. The newsrooms discovered that no two counties deal with decision-making the identical approach, however Maricopa County is an outlier for obscuring practically each side of its committee’s work.
The ACLU sued the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Workplace in 2019 for entry to the committee’s membership and different data. Jared Keenan, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona’s authorized director, stated the group thought of the data essential to the general public’s understanding of the dying penalty.
“Prosecuting businesses have an unimaginable quantity of energy, and that energy is at its peak after they make life-and-death choices,” Keenan stated. “The general public must know who’s concerned in making these choices to have the ability to be sure that these choices are made responsibly, constitutionally, ethically.”
The county opposed releasing the data. “They had been combating to maintain this particular info from the general public for years and years,” Keenan stated. A choose didn’t order the county to launch the committee data to the general public.
At ProPublica and ABC15’s request, the county lawyer’s workplace shared a coverage doc itemizing the composition of the Capital Overview Committee however stated the doc is “considerably outdated.” It listed as committee members: the deputy chief of the Prison Division; the division chiefs from the Capital Litigation Bureau, Main Offenders Division and Particular Victims Division; and the Neighborhood Based mostly Prosecution Division chiefs. The coverage permits the county lawyer to designate different committee members.
In a press release, the county lawyer’s workplace reiterated that Mitchell makes the ultimate determination after contemplating a variety of knowledge.
Nonetheless, the choice can really feel opaque to victims’ relations.
Sherry Spooney visits the graves of her family in Phoenix. Spooney questioned why prosecutors sought the dying penalty for his or her mom within the 2016 killings of the youngsters.
Credit score:
Ash Ponders for ProPublica
When prosecutors sought the dying penalty in opposition to Octavia Rogers within the killing of her three younger kids in the summertime of 2016, they went in opposition to the household’s needs, in accordance with Rogers’ aunt, Sherry Spooney. Spooney and her household had misplaced three younger family within the killing and didn’t wish to lose Rogers to the dying penalty, too. “What wouldn’t it resolve? How wouldn’t it assist the state of affairs?” she stated.
Prosecutors by no means spoke to the household about how they arrived at their determination, Spooney stated.
The Maricopa County Lawyer’s Workplace stated it reached out to the household.
Spooney known as their secrecy “disheartening” and stated it brought on her to marvel if the workplace had its personal agenda in pursuing the dying penalty. “It’s a complete disservice, to not simply the household, however the victims of the household. And on this case, we’re each, we’re one and the identical, and in the event that they’re going to make choices for another person, it must be identified.”
New Regulation Will increase Oversight of Arizona Sober Dwelling Properties
Final 12 months, after Rogers was discovered incompetent to face trial, she pleaded “responsible besides insane,” that means she didn’t know on the time of her crime that the act was fallacious. Rogers is being held on the Arizona State Hospital.
Valencia recalled that when the case in opposition to her brother’s killer was delayed, she initially blamed protection attorneys for dragging out the proceedings, however the committee’s secrecy was additionally contributing to the delay. Attorneys for Hernandez, the defendant, had found a member of the Capital Overview Committee had a possible battle of curiosity: A former protection lawyer for Hernandez in an unrelated case had since change into a prosecutor and was on the committee that voted to reject a plea deal for Hernandez. (The plea deal included the noncapital case as properly.)
Prosecutors fought for practically three years to maintain the committee’s membership and its votes secret in a case that reached the Arizona Supreme Court docket. A choose finally decided there was no battle of curiosity within the Hernandez case.
Years later, when prosecutors withdrew the dying penalty cost in opposition to Hernandez, Valencia stated she agreed with the choice despite the fact that she’d as soon as thought it could be the one simply end result.
“It took such a toll on our household, at that time, I used to be simply prepared for it to be achieved,” she stated.
