From the Arizona Republic Maricopa County sets $4 mil for death penalty appeals
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has unanimously agreed to spend up to $4 million to pay for post-conviction appeals for defendants in local death-penalty cases.
The board voted Wednesday to dedicate the money from the general fund to the county Office of Public Defender, which pays for post-conviction relief appeals of death-penalty cases.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s recent decision to reduce the required number of attorneys in post-conviction relief appellate cases from two to one allowed more cases to move through the appeals process, said Cari Gerchick, county spokeswoman.
In addition, Maricopa County currently has a high number of death-penalty cases that could result in post-conviction appeals, many from former County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ term in office from 2005 to April 2010,Gerchick said. The county attorney has statutory power to seek the death penalty.
“We saw that during the Andrew Thomas years, he charged a number of people and said he had wanted the death penalty. So, there was an unprecedented spike of death-penalty cases during his time in office,” Gerchick said.
The county Public Defender’s Office will use the money to pay for representation of defendants sentenced to death, anticipating more cases will begin moving through the post-conviction appeals process.
