Arizona lawmaker introduces measure to abolish death penalty
Dec 12, 2024, 5:00 AM
Anti-death penalty activists demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building on July 2, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (File Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(File Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
PHOENIX – As prosecutors move to carry out Arizona’s first execution in more than two years, a state lawmaker is renewing her effort to abolish the death penalty.
Democratic state Rep. Patty Contreras (District 12) filed legislation Wednesday that would let voters decide if the Arizona Constitution should be amended to end the death penalty.
“Increasingly, death row inmates have had their cases overturned – nearly 200 since 1973 – because of improved investigative technology like DNA analysis. Still, other states have executed people despite serious doubts about their guilt. Arizona should not go back down that road,” Contreras said in a press release.
If both chambers of the Legislature pass HCR 2001, the question would appear on the 2026 general election ballot.
“People who commit heinous crimes should be locked away, and victims of crime and their families deserve justice. But the death penalty is not the answer,” Contreras said.
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Contreras is proposing a measure to abolish the death penalty for a third consecutive session. With Republicans in control of the state House and Senate, this time seems unlikely to be the charm.
Death penalty has rarely been carried out in last decade
Other than three executions in 2022, the death penalty has been on hiatus in Arizona since 2014.
However, the state is moving forward with plans to execute convicted murderer Aaron Brian Gunches. Gunches has been on death row for the 2002 murder of Ted Price and was on the path to execution in early 2023.
However, the execution was delayed when Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the state’s death penalty protocols shortly after taking office. Attorney General Kris Mayes said she wouldn’t seek execution warrants until the review was completed.
State officials moving to end execution hiatus
Mayes recently announced that she was now satisfied in the capabilities of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry to carry out the death penalty without the issues that marred previous executions. Last week, she took the first legal step toward seeking an execution warrant for Gunches.
“The death penalty is the law of Arizona, and as the attorney general it is my responsibility to uphold the law,” Mayes told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.
Contreras wants the law to be changed.
“It’s disheartening to see that Arizona is restarting executions when there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, and it is disproportionately applied to defendants who are people of color, people who are economically disadvantaged and especially those with intellectual disabilities,” she said.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Heidi Hommel contributed to this report.
