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Bipartisan clamp down: Lawmakers passed several bills in 2012 increasing punishment for lawbreakers
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle acted to make life tougher for Arizona criminals during this year’s legislative session by passing a slate of criminal justice bills.
Arizona Supreme Court hears convicted killer’s appeal
The Arizona Supreme Court has heard arguments in the appeal of a convicted serial killer who was sentenced to death six times in March 2009.
Guilty plea in case of Senate page killing
One of two men suspected in the fatal shooting of a Senate page in 2010 has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder to avoid the death penalty.
Defense cost in border activist trials: $951K
The total cost to defend three border activists ultimately convicted of killing a southern Arizona man and his young daughter in a 2009 home invasion was more than $951,000, making it one of the costliest in Pima County's history.
Opening statements set in Baseline Killer trial
Two simultaneous serial killing sprees had Phoenix-area residents on edge in the summer of 2006 as police scrambled to find the culprits.
Most death penalty rationales fray under scrutiny
In recent weeks, we’ve seen a criminal executed and another execution is scheduled pending a last-minute review. Every time Arizona doles out the most severe punishment humans have the capacity to inflict on one another, I find myself asking: When criminals are killed for their crimes, what are we hoping will result, and what actually results?
The science of imposing the death penalty
The execution of Eric King reveals the imprecision in choosing who should be condemned, say death penalty observers.
Arizona death-row inmate asks for mercy, apologizes
An Arizona death-row inmate convicted of killing a man and a teenager after raping and torturing is asking a state clemency board to show him mercy and change his death sentence to life in prison.
Arizona clemency board won’t stop execution
Arizona's clemency board has turned down a death-row inmate's request that his sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his scheduled execution be delayed.
Police: AZ beheading tied to Mexican drug cartel
A police report, citing Border Patrol intelligence, states that Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy stole 400 pounds of marijuana and some meth from the PEI-Estatales/El Chapo drug trafficking organization, shortly before he was bludgeoned, stabbed and then decapitated in a suburban Phoenix apartment last October — a gruesome killing that police say was meant to send a message that anyone who betrays t[...]
Closings set in border group leader’s murder trial
Attorneys are expected to give closing arguments Thursday in the murder case against an anti-illegal immigrant group leader who is accused of gunning down a 9-year-old girl and her father in what prosecutors say was an attempt to steal drug money to fund border operations.
Man convicted of murder in self-defense case granted new trial
The Legislature can retroactively apply a 2006 law that shifted the burden of proof in self-defense claims from defendants to prosecutors, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
