By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t disturb Arizona’s death penalty statutes despite claims — and what several justices say is some evidence — that they may be overly broad.
Without comment the majority of the justices on Monday brushed aside claims by Abel Hidalgo that state laws fail to discriminate between the types of murders that merit execution and those for which a death penalty is inappropriate.
But in a show of how divisive the issue is, four of the nine justices said the Arizona statutes really do need a closer look by the nation’s high court, especially given evidence — undisputed by the state — that they open the door for prosecutors to seek the death penalty in virtually every case. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for himself and three other colleagues, said the evidence presented “points to a possible constitutional problem.”
In general, murder by itself under Arizona law does not entail capital punishment.
