News and Events

29 Years for 13 Seconds

January 17, 2018 by Dennis Seavers

Special performance of “29 Years For 13 Seconds: The Injustices of Justice”, sponsored by Interfaith CommUNITY Spiritual Center and Death Penalty Alternatives of Arizona.

At 16 years old, Vance “Duke” Webster witnessed two friends commit a crime. When refused to “snitch” he was sentenced to life in prison. A one-act play based on a true story, “29 Years For 13 Seconds” is less about Webster’s time in prison and more about how women, religion and social services have created wild waves that he rides without the slightest hint of resentment. Don’t believe it? Come check it out. One night only, 7 p.m., Friday, January 19, 2018, 952 E. Baseline Rd, #102, Mesa, AZ.

NOTE: A suggested love offering of $10 will be collected the night of the show. You may also pre-purchase tickets

Arizona ends automatic solitary confinement of death-row inmates

January 5, 2018 by Dennis Seavers

From the Death Penalty Information Center:

Several months after Arizona settled a lawsuit over the conditions of confinement on the state’s death row, the state has ended the practice of automatically housing condemned prisoners in solitary confinement, and prisoners and prison officials alike are praising the changes.

Carson McWilliams

Carson McWilliams (pictured right), Division Director for Offender Operations in the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), told the Arizona Republic that the new incarceration conditions provide an “atmosphere where [prisoners] can socialize,” resulting in “reduce[d] anxiety” that, in turn, “adds to safety control” of the prison. And, prison officials say, it has reduced institutional costs.

Prior to the lawsuit, death row had meant 23-hour-per-day confinement in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, shuttered by a steel door with a perforated slot through which the prisoners would receive their meals, and with a bench bed and a sink attached to an uncovered toilet. Prisoners had no contact visits with families or lawyers, were handcuffed behind the back and subjected to body-cavity searches whenever they left their cells, and were restricted to showering or exercising three times a week. They also were denied prison jobs and educational opportunities. About the solitary conditions, McWilliams remarked, “The more you’re restricted inside a cell, the more likely you are to have depression, to have anxiety, to have other types of mental problems that could lead to some type of problem inside the system, whether its self harm, or suicide, or aggression towards a staff member or towards another inmate.”

One death-row prisoner who was interviewed by the paper said, “It’s hard to explain the deprivation. . . . It weighs on your mind.” McWilliams said it now requires fewer officers to manage death row because officers no longer have to deliver individual meals or individually escort each of the 120 prisoners. Kevin Curran, who has been a prison warden at various facilities run by the ADC, said that he “feels safer among the death-row men than among the career criminals and gangsters in the general population.” Under the new conditions, prisoners are able to socialize with each other in activities such as playing basketball, volleyball, or board games, and can eat meals together. One ADC corrections officer told the Arizona Republic that he was “apprehensive” at first about the changes, but the transition has been “very good” with only a “few minor incidents,” which were “a lot less” than he expected.

(M. Kiefer, Arizona death row comes out of solitary, giving convicts more human contact, socialization, Arizona Republic, Dec. 19, 2017.)

World Day Against the Death Penalty

October 13, 2017 by Dennis Seavers

10 reasons to end the use of the death penalty

No state should have the power to takes a person’s life.
It is irrevocable. No justice system is safe from judicial error and innocent people are likely to be sentenced to death.
It does not keep society safe. It has never been conclusively shown that the death penalty deters crimes more effectively than other punishments.
It is unfair. The death penalty is discriminatory and is often used disproportionately against people who are poor, people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and from racial and ethnic minority group. In some places, the imposition of the death penalty is used to target particular groups based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.
Not all murder victims’ families want the death penalty. A large and growing number of victims’ families worldwide reject the death penalty and are speaking out against it, saying it does not bring back or honor their murdered family member, does not heal the of pain of the murder, and violates their ethical and religious beliefs.
It creates more pain. The death penalty inflicts pain on the families of people on death row and causes great pain to the family members of people who have been executed.
It is inhuman, cruel and degrading. Conditions on death row inflict extreme psychological suffering, and execution is a physical and mental assault.
It is applied overwhelmingly in violation of international standards. It breaches the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to life and that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. On six occasions, the United Nations General Assembly has called for the establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (resolutions 62/149, 63/168, 65/206, 67/176,69/186 and 71/187, adopted in December 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016).
It is inefficient. It diverts time and money from other more efficient law enforcement measures.
It denies any possibility of rehabilitation for the criminal.

Details at http://www.worldcoalition.org/worldday.html

Prominent Attorney Joins Arizona Capital Defense Team’s SCOTUS Brief Challenging the Constitutionality of the Death Penalty

September 29, 2017 by Kevin Heade

Abel Hidalgo presented a constitutional challenge to the Arizona Supreme Court alleging that Arizona’s statutory scheme establishing aggravating factors to justify the death sentence in some first-degree murders did not sufficiently narrow the class of cases eligible for the death penalty under the seminal United States Supreme Court case, Furman v. Georgia. To support his argument, Hidalgo relied upon a study presented to the trial court establishing that approximately 99% of all first-degree murder cases in Arizona had at least one aggravating circumstance present. Under Arizona law, only one aggravating circumstance listed under A.R.S. 13-751(F) must be proven to a jury in order to obtain a death sentence. The trial court had accepted the study’s findings but rejected Hidalgo’s constitutional challenge. The Arizona Supreme Court also rejected the challenge. (Opinion available here.)

Former Acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal, has joined Hidalgo’s legal team to present the constitutional challenge to the death penalty that some scholars suggest could abolish the death penalty at a national level. As of now, the United States Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear the case.

Read more about the case, including Hidalgo’s petition for cert, here.

President Alan Tavassoli Kicks Off Death Penalty Speaker Series at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

September 29, 2017 by Kevin Heade

President Alan Tavassoli conducted a lunch presentation at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law on September 29, 2017. Approximately 50 students attended the event.

Mr. Tavassoli’s presentation provided an overview of the legal framework governing capital trials in Arizona from the initiation of the case to the jury’s deliberations in the guilt, aggravation, and mitigation phases of a capital trial.

Mr. Tavassoli, who is also a capital defense attorney, explained the ethical requirements a defense team must meet in order to provide competent legal services to defendant’s facing the death penalty.

Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona is working to schedule a discussion every month during the lunch hour at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law as part of its educational efforts to raise awareness about the death penalty in Arizona.

Former Arizona Supreme Court chief justice to speak at quarterly meeting April 8 in Tucson

April 4, 2017 by Dennis Seavers

Former Chief Justice Stanley Feldman

Hon. Stanley Feldman: Arizona death penalty beyond repair

What: Hon. Stanley Feldman, speaking at Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona quarterly meeting
When: Saturday, April 8, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Monterey Court, 505 W. Miracle Mile, Tucson
How much: Free and open to the public
More information: (602) 357-4848

Former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley Feldman is the featured speaker at the quarterly meeting of Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona. The program, which will feature dignitaries including the Hon. Ron Barber and Rep. David Bradley (D-Tucson), will begin at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, April 8, at Monterey Court, 505 W. Miracle Mile.

Feldman served as an Arizona Supreme Court justice for 21 years, from 1982–2002, including a five-year term as chief justice (1992–1996). As chief justice, he was active in the National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Chief Justices. He retired from the court in 2002 and still practices law at the firm he helped form in 1968, Miller, Pitt, Feldman & McAnally.

Feldman has said the capital punishment system is broken beyond repair. Feldman, who sits on the Advisory Board of Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona, would rather see offenders sentenced to life instead of death.

Death Row Exoneree Shujaa Graham to Speak in Arizona

January 27, 2017 by Dan Peitzmeyer

Shujaa Graham was born in Louisiana and grew up on a plantation in the segregated South of the 1950s. After moving to Southern California, Shujaa experienced the Watts Riots and police occupation of his community. In and out of trouble, he spent much of his adolescence in juvenile institutions, and when he turned 18 he was sent to Soledad Prison.

Mentored by the leadership of the Black Prison Movement, Shujaa became a leader of the growing movement within the California prison system as the Black Panther Party expanded in that community.

Shujaa was framed for a 1973 murder of a prison guard was sent to San Quentin’s death row. The California Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in 1979, yet it wasn’t until 1981 that he was found innocent and released. Shujaa lectures on the death penalty, the criminal justice system, racism, and gang violence to international audiences around the world. One of his favorite audiences is American youth: “I’m filled with ideals for a better future, I may never enjoy the fruits of this labor, but our children will.”

We are pleased to sponsor his visit and appreciate the support of Amnesty International and Pax Christi. He will be speaking at these venues in Phoenix as well as in Tucson and Flagstaff.

2/14 ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor Law School 111 E. Taylor St. Phoenix 2:00 – 3:30
2/15 Phoenix College 1202 W Thomas Rd. Student Union SU 117A and B 12 – 1:30
2/15 Glendale Community College 6000 W. Olive Ave. Glendale Student Union 104 A 5:30 – 7
2/16 Herberger Theater Center, Kax Stage, 3rd St and E. Van Buren St. Phoenix 1:15 – 2:15
2/17 St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church 3201 E Presidio Rd, Tucson, AZ 6:30 – 8:30
2/18 San Francisco de Asis Catholic Parish,1600 E Route 66, Flagstaff AZ 7:00 – 9:00
2/20 Franciscan Renewal Center, 5802 East Lincoln Dr. Paradise Valley 6:30 – 8:30

Maricopa County is a death-penalty “outlier”

September 1, 2016 by Dennis Seavers

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery

A Harvard Law School report identifies Maricopa County as an outlier in its use of the death penalty. As the Phoenix New Times reports:

“Too Broken to Fix: Part I: An In-Depth Look at America’s Outlier Death Penalty Counties,” by the school’s Fair Punishment Project, identifies Maricopa as one of 16 “outliers” among the nation’s 3,143 counties or “county equivalents,” for having sentenced five or more defendants to death during the period 2010-2015.

You can read the full news article by clicking here, or you can read the report itself by following this link (PDF).

Arizona’s death penalty faces uncertain future

June 25, 2016 by Dennis Seavers

The Arizona Department of Corrections has removed the controversial midazolam from its lethal-injection protocol. And because it doesn’t have the other drugs in the protocol for carrying out executions, the Department can’t conduct any executions in the near future.

As a result, the death penalty in Arizona is on hold for the “foreseeable future.”

For the entire news article on this development, please click here to go to the Arizona Republic website.