http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/05/21/bipartisan-clamp-down-lawmakers-passed-several-bills-in-2012-increasing-punishment-for-lawbreakers/ Your Inside Track to Arizona Politics Fri, 24 May 2013 20:26:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/05/21/bipartisan-clamp-down-lawmakers-passed-several-bills-in-2012-increasing-punishment-for-lawbreakers/comment-page-1/#comment-72663 middlegroundprisonreform Tue, 22 May 2012 21:54:18 +0000 http://azcapitoltimes.com/?p=45965#comment-72663 With respect to HB 2373 which eliminates 25 to Life as a possible sentence for first-degree murder: Bill Montgomery testified at legislative hearings that his primary concern was for victims of crime who don't want to have to appear at release hearings for an offender after a period of 25-years, and each year thereafter. But he didn't address at all (nor did legislators) the increase in costs to the state for defendants who now will have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to accept a plea deal when the only possible sentence (for non-death-qualified cases) will be natural life. The additional trials -- not to mention the trauma to victim's families -- will be costly. The defense bar should be ashamed of itself for their lack of opposition to this bill. Only a tiny fraction of first-degree murder cases are death-eligible. Hence, their claim that juries are less likely to impose death if they know that the only other punishment is natural life applies to just a relatively few number of cases in all counties throughout Arizona. Now, not a single 18+ year old defendant, who might be mentally ill, but not incompetent according to legal standards, or a woman who commits first-degree murder due to years of unreported domestic violence, but whose case doesn't meet the standard for using the abuse as a defense to prosecution. Publc policy that flows from the theory of throwing out the baby with the bath water is never good policy. There are always exceptions to any set of circumstances, and now Arizona has eliminated any possibility that an exception could ever be considered for release from prison. HB 2373 is very bad law. With respect to HB 2373 which eliminates 25 to Life as a possible sentence for first-degree murder: Bill Montgomery testified at legislative hearings that his primary concern was for victims of crime who don’t want to have to appear at release hearings for an offender after a period of 25-years, and each year thereafter. But he didn’t address at all (nor did legislators) the increase in costs to the state for defendants who now will have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to accept a plea deal when the only possible sentence (for non-death-qualified cases) will be natural life. The additional trials — not to mention the trauma to victim’s families — will be costly. The defense bar should be ashamed of itself for their lack of opposition to this bill. Only a tiny fraction of first-degree murder cases are death-eligible. Hence, their claim that juries are less likely to impose death if they know that the only other punishment is natural life applies to just a relatively few number of cases in all counties throughout Arizona. Now, not a single 18+ year old defendant, who might be mentally ill, but not incompetent according to legal standards, or a woman who commits first-degree murder due to years of unreported domestic violence, but whose case doesn’t meet the standard for using the abuse as a defense to prosecution. Publc policy that flows from the theory of throwing out the baby with the bath water is never good policy. There are always exceptions to any set of circumstances, and now Arizona has eliminated any possibility that an exception could ever be considered for release from prison. HB 2373 is very bad law.

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