PHOENIX — Almost all of Arizona's elected officials are declining to answer questions about a special investigation into Maricopa County’s death penalty cases that revealed extreme secrecy, high costs, and questionable results.
ABC15 worked with ProPublica to expose how the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) has sought death in hundreds of cases, but only 13% actually resulted in a death sentence.
The cost to taxpayers: $305 million, at least.
SEEKING DEATH: Investigating Valley capital cases
Despite multiple requests, nearly every elected official, including Governor Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, declined to comment or sit down for an interview about the findings.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who turned down multiple interview requests, finally answered a few questions following a recent press conference.
“There has never been a county attorney more transparent about the death penalty,” she said.
Watch more of Mitchell’s responses in the video player below:
For more than two decades, MCAO has used a special committee of prosecutors to help the county attorney select death penalty cases. The committee’s work is shrouded in secrecy. MCAO refuses to name members, identify cases it reviewed, or show the committee’s votes.
“We made it very clear that the person who makes the decision to pursue the death penalty is standing right here, it’s Rachel Mitchell,” Mitchell said at the press conference.
Throughout a months-long reporting process, MCAO declined to evaluate or review ABC15’s and ProPublica’s findings about the low rate of capital cases that resulted in a death sentence over the past 20 years.
“I don’t look at numbers. I look at cases,” Mitchell said. “I’m never going to be the county attorney that says, ‘Once I allege the death penalty, that’s it, we’re not going back.’ That’s not ethical. And that is not how I practice law.”
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Since 2007, ABC15 and ProPublica have found that death penalty cases have cost the county nearly $300 million just in legal defense expenses at the trial level.
MCAO said it could not provide a figure for how much death penalty cases have cost to prosecute. [ABC15 and ProPublica have filed a public request seeking salary and expenditures.]
“One of the things I take into consideration are resources when I file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty, but that is not the only consideration,” Mitchell said. At the press conference, the county attorney added, “Defense attorneys bill by the hour, my attorneys do not bill by the hour. So, it’s going to take longer to get that to you.”
Every member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who passes the budget for county agencies, declined interview requests on the costs of capital cases.
The only elected official in Arizona who agreed to sit down for an interview was state Representative Patty Contreras.
Contreras has introduced legislation for three consecutive sessions that would let voters decide whether to keep the death penalty. The bill has never received a hearing.
"Frankly, I think some people just like having the death penalty. We're the wild west, you know, we're Arizona," Contreras said when asked about the reluctance to discuss the issue.
Through a spokesperson, the attorney general, who handles all capital appeals for the state, declined to be interviewed. So did the governor.
Retired Judge David Duncan, who was previously hired by Governor Hobbs to investigate the state's execution procedures before being fired just before releasing a critical report, said the lack of transparency is not a surprise.
"This cloak of secrecy is almost an article of faith in the death penalty process," Duncan said. "If you don't talk about it, there's maybe no risk. If you talk about it, there's a risk. And maybe you're on the wrong side of the issue, ultimately. And maybe people don't have the courage to say what they should say."
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com or Nicole Santa Cruz at Nicole.Santa.Cruz@ProPublica.org.
