Arizona's attorney general wants to finish his term with a rush of executions
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Radley Balko
@radleybalko
If you had to point to one person as a walking, talking argument against the death penalty, you could probably just point to Arizona AG Mark Brnovich.
First, two fed courts ruled Barry Jones had inadequate representation, there's persuasive evidence of his innocence, & overturned his conviction.
Citing AEDPA, Brnovich is asking SCOTUS to ignore all that, allowing Jones to be executed on a technicality.
His Conviction Was Overturned Amid Evidence of Innocence. The Supreme Court Could Throw It All Out.
Arizona hopes the courts conservative majority will do what prosecutors are unable to: send Barry Jones back to death row.
theintercept.com
At the same time, Brnovich has vowed to execute 21 Arizona death row prisoners before he leaves office in 18 months. Which of course will generate a lot of press coverage just ahead of his run for the U.S. Senate.
Editorial: Arizona's attorney general wants to finish his term with a rush of executions
Arizona Atty. Gen. Mark Brnovich vows to execute 21 people before he is termed out. You can't get much more arbitrary than that.
latimes.com
So at the same time an AG is trying to carry out a rush of executions for explicitly political reasons, he's also asking SCOTUS to allow another man to be executed despite evidence of the man's innocence and the state's clear failure to protect that man's 6A rights.
Not sure I can think of a better example why the death penalty can't be entrusted to politicians.
And so long as we have it, it will always be politicians deciding who lives and dies.
8:22 AM · Aug 4, 2021
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-04-12/arizona-death-penalty-brnovich-barr-trump
Its been seven years since the state of Arizona last executed someone convicted of murder, and given how poorly that went (it took Joseph Wood two gasping hours to die), its understandable that a judge ordered state officials to unplug the execution assembly line for a bit.
But after spending several years fighting with inmates and anti-death-penalty advocates in court, state Atty. Gen. Mark Brnovich seems to finally be on the verge of revving the machinery back up to execute 21 of the states 115 condemned inmates.
Brnovich notified the state supreme court last week that he intends to start with death warrants for two men after earlier announcing that were gonna do everything we can, and do everything I can, to ensure that every 21 of those individuals [who] have exhausted their appeals ends up getting the death penalty before I leave office.
Note that last phrase: Before he leaves office (Brnovich is termed out as of January 2023). So these execution dates will be dictated by the interests of politics, not the interests of justice.
*snip*