County Attorney candidates clash over death penalty

The death penalty emerged as an issue as the candidates for Maricopa County Attorney, Republican incumbent Andrew Thomas and Democratic challenger Tim Nelson, squared off in a debate on PBS KAET Channel 8's "Horizon" program Tuesday night.

Nelson accused Thomas of seeking the death penalty in too many cases, which drew a question from Thomas.

"Which cases should we not be seeking the death penalty in? I'd like to know, I think the voters would like to know."

Nelson said it is a court time issue.

"Andy, if you were to try every one of those cases -- if you would start today and devote every single criminal calendar to a full trial of all of those cases -- if you went back-to-back and used every single court date, it would take you four years."

While answering one question, Thomas said that Nelson has worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in the past.

Nelson, asked about that later, said, "I have represented hundreds of clients in hundreds of cases throughout my career. There have been exactly three that involved the ACLU and two of them, I was opposed to the ACLU. So Mr.Thomas' efforts to try to paint me as somehow connected with the ACLU is just flat-out wrong, and it's the type of labeling that has no place in this political debate."

Thomas stood firm, insisting Nelson was tied to ACLU lawyers and calling him a "soft on crime ACLU liberal."

Libertarian candidate Michael Kielsky also took part in the debate.