Phoenix-Mesa, AZ (1888PressRelease)
April 10, 2009 - Arizona Attorney Magazine Examines Capital Case Crisis in Two-Part Series.
The April issue of Arizona Attorney magazine examines why capital cases in Maricopa County take so long to adjudicate.
The article titled “The Capital Case Crisis In Maricopa County, What (Little) We Can Do About It” is written by knowledgeable, longtime players in the legal system. To view the article online for free, please visit the magazine's homepage at http://www.myazbar.org/azattorney/ and click on the magazine cover to view the current digital version of the April issue.
Hon. Robert L. Gottsfield, who is a retired but called-back full-time Maricopa County Superior Court judge, wrote the article with Marianne Alcorn, the Reference and Faculty Services head at the Arizona State University Ross-Blakley Law Library.
Judge Gottsfield is presently serving as a special assignment judge trying criminal cases, including capital cases.
The authors dissect the county crisis, which has been noted in national publications. They address the time such cases take to process. For example, it will be 2017 before the present backlog is completed, and the average length of time from death sentence to execution is 20 years. The article also examines the huge costs that stem from those cases.
Part 2 of the series, to appear in the May edition, will cover issues such as process participants, mitigation, victims’ rights and what can be done.
After observing the backlog, the authors intended to write an article about the need for a state-funded empirical study of the cost of capital cases in Arizona, as many other states have recently done. To date, 15 states have abolished the death penalty, mostly for reasons of cost, the latest being New Mexico on March 19.
But the authors concluded, “We soon realized that no matter what the cost of these cases, such a study will not help us process the capital case backlog. What we required is not a study, but action, no matter how limited the options are.”
“The impact of capital cases goes far beyond the people involved in the specific cases,” said Tim Eigo, editor of Arizona Attorney magazine. “The cases require a massive expenditure of resources, which the authors explain well.”
Contact: Tim Eigo, Arizona Attorney Editor
Phone: (602) 340-7310.
Arizona Attorney magazine is published 11 times per year by the State Bar of Arizona. It provides articles on substantive legal issues, professional trends and feature profiles.
About the State Bar
The State Bar of Arizona is a non-profit organization that operates under the supervision of the Arizona Supreme Court. The Bar includes about 16,000 active attorneys in Arizona and provides education and development programs for the legal profession and the public. Since 1933 the Bar and its members have been committed to serving the public by making sure the voices of all people in Arizona are heard in our justice system.
Did You Know?
The State Bar of Arizona has published a free Expert Witness Guide in the Arizona Attorney magazine. To see the guide, visit http://www.myazbar.org/azattorney/ and click on the "Expert Witness Guide" button in the right hand column.
Visit the Bar’s Media Information Center at: www.azbar.org/NewsCenter
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