In training materials recently obtained by the ACLU of Arizona, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) refers to the people it prosecutes using the slur “crazy” and paints people with psychiatric disabilities as liars and obstacles to winning a conviction – not as human beings worthy of respect.

Allister Adel, an attorney in private practice and former executive director of the Maricopa County Bar Association, will be Maricopa County Attorney for the next year.

The Arizona Supreme Court has assigned a special outside counsel to investigate ethics complaints against newly appointed Justice Bill Montgomery and celebrity prosecutor Juan Martinez.

The next Maricopa County Attorney will come from a pool of eight applicants, all of whom say they will run in 2020 if appointed.

Maybe it’s time for prosecutors like Barbara LaWall to stop defending the status quo and embrace a more effective justice system based on data and evidence. It has worked in Texas, Utah, Georgia and 29 other states. And unless Arizonans are somehow more crime-prone than the rest of the country, it will work here, too.

On this edition of The Breakdown, our reporters discuss Mark Brnovich, Criminal Justice Reform, and Gov. Doug Ducey's latest court appointment.

Gov. Doug Ducey appointed a Democrat to the Arizona Court of Appeals on Friday, a week after his controversial pick of Republican Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery to the Supreme Court.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors set the process in motion today to replace Bill Montgomery as Maricopa County Attorney by naming its seven-member citizens committee to vet the applicants hoping to be appointed.

Maricopa County “top cop” Bill Montgomery’s got a new job, and while he’s trying on black robes half the lawyers in Phoenix are gunning for his old one.

Bill Montgomery’s power and influence as an Arizona Supreme Court justice will depend on whether he abides by more traditional standards of the high court by taking less of an activist role at the Capitol.