Maricopa County, one of the US' fastest-growing counties, now has an additional distinction: It is also a leader in seeking the death penalty.
During his two years in office, Andrew Thomas, the county attorney, has nearly doubled the number of times that the office has sought the death penalty, even though the number of first-degree murder cases prosecuted by the county has remained more or less the same for a decade.
A policy change that he enacted has contributed to a backlog of capital cases here that has crippled the county's public-defender system, left roughly a dozen murder defendants without representation, and prompted rancor and demoralization in the agencies that defend capital cases.
"Clearly the system is overwhelmed," said James Haas, the Maricopa County public defender. "There are not enough lawyers who are qualified to take these cases."
The Arizona Supreme Court has convened a task force to address the issue.
Separately, on Friday, a county superior court judge assembled parties within the county justice system to look for solutions.
The capital defense lawyers, county budget officials and representatives of the county attorney's office met privately to begin working toward a settlement, averting for now a highly unusual hearing previously ordered by the judge to address the cases.
One possible result is that the county attorney may remove the death penalty status from some cases, said lawyers who were present.
The judge, James Keppel, said in court on Friday that the only settlement he would accept was one that included the immediate provision of lead counsel for those defendants without adequate representation, and a long-range plan designed to prevent further crisis in the courts.
Last year, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office sought the death penalty in 44 of 89 murder cases. By comparison, in 2004, the year before Thomas became county attorney, the office sought the death penalty in 28 of 108 cases. The county, which includes the city of Phoenix, currently has 138 capital cases pending or awaiting trial, surpassing the total number of defendants who received the death penalty nationwide last year.
While there is no central clearinghouse for county data on cases in which the death penalty is sought, Maricopa is almost certainly "among the highest in the nation," said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
"In its heyday, 138 cases in Harris would have been a lot," Dieter added, referring to the Texas county known for seeking the death penalty; it currently has 17 such cases pending.
Overwhelmed defense lawyers have asked the courts to stay capital cases for which there have been no lawyers available, setting off the county legal proceedings.
Thomas responded by accusing the defense lawyers of "delay tactics," which prompted a firestorm between his office and the four county units responsible for defending capital cases.
"I don't want to be in the middle of a philosophical debate about the death penalty; it's the law," said Mark Kennedy, the director of the county's Office of Contract Counsel, which appoints lawyers for cases that the public defender's office cannot handle. Its lawyers defend more than half of the county's capital cases. "All I was saying was, `Time out."'
Kennedy was enraged by Thomas' comments, and has argued, along with other defense lawyers, that capital cases require significant time and resources in order to comply with guidelines dictated by the American Bar Association.
"Who is going to tell me this guy needs more work?" said Kennedy, tapping on a dossier that showed one lawyer with six capital cases on his desk. "No judge, no lawyer, no one, not in this lifetime. You can fire me, but I won't do it, and it really makes my blood pressure soar to hear these folks aren't working hard enough."
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