The Arizona Supreme Court will soon review the misconduct of Juan Martinez, one of Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s top prosecutors.Martinez won national notoriety When he indicted Jodi Arias for murder in 2008, his aggressive and often unethical behavior was well known in Arizona even before then. rice field.
The ACLU in Arizona and the ACLU’s Death Penalty Project yesterday amicus briefs It urged the court to do just that, and in doing so, highlighted the pervasive culture of cheating in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Until recently, the Arizona Bar Association neglected its duty to seek disciplinary action against Juan Martinez, despite the repeated spotlighting of Juan Martinez’s actions and misconduct by the Arizona Supreme Court. , never faced the consequences of his wrongdoing, so it is not surprising that he continued to defy the law in order to obtain a conviction and a death sentence.
Like many people in positions of power, Martinez has been an elusive target. In 2017, the Arizona Criminal Justice Attorney filed a complaint with the State Bar, citing Martinez’s long history of misconduct.Unfortunately, however, after a poorly presented lawsuit in court, the panel that considered the complaint dismissed it and refused to take disciplinary action against Martinez. appealed now to the Arizona Supreme Court. We succinctly call on the court to reverse the bar association’s erroneous decision and appoint a special counsel to handle the complaint against Martinez.
Unfortunately, Juan Martinez’s actions are not uncommon in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. This demonstrates a decades-old culture of top-down malfeasance that prioritizes winning belief over pursuing fairness and doing justice.
One of the worse examples is Prosecutor Noel LevyDuring his long career with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Levy sent two innocent people to death row. Debra Mirke spent her 24 years in prison, including her 22 years on death row, for a crime she never committed. At the 1990 trial, Levy shared with Milke’s legal team that the lead detective, whom Milke alleged confessed to, had a long history of lying under oath and other wrongdoing. There was no state constitution.Milke is finally released from prison In 2015, Levi’s prosecutorial misconduct was exposed, and the transparency allowed her to clear her name.
Two years after Milke’s trial, Levy indicted Ray Krone for murdering a woman who worked at a bar he frequented. Levy relied on evidence of suspicious bite marks to hand down the death sentence against Krone, who had no criminal record prior to the murder charges. However, it turns out that the comparison image of the bite marks had been manipulated to match Krone’s teeth. ten years later DNA Evidence Clears Krone Pointed to another man in prison for a sex crime. Krone was finally released after serving 10 years of his sentence, including his 4 years on death row.
Despite the devastating toll on the lives of these two men and the great damage to the integrity of the criminal justice system, the Arizona bar has in each case reprimanded Levy for gross misconduct. There was no disciplinary action. It’s no coincidence that Maricopa County is one of the largest contributors to new death sentences across the nation. an overzealous and often unethical prosecutor.
This culture of impunity is so entrenched that prosecutors not only escape punishment for misconduct and unethical behavior, but are actually rewarded.
Prosecutors with a known record of misconduct or unethical behavior are honored and rewarded by the Arizona Attorney Advisory Committee (APAAC), which includes Bill Montgomery as a member. APAAC named Martinez “Prosecutor of the Year” in his 1999. Noel Levy had won the same award a few years earlier, and later he received the APAAC “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Martinez’s colleague and chief of the capital litigation unit, Janet Gallagher, committed a series of misconduct in multiple lawsuits. Yet, like Levy, she won her APAAC “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2013.
State attorneys aren’t the only ones who can hold these prosecutors accountable. Maricopa County’s Bill Montgomery can and should take the lead in wiping out a culture of cheating in the office. He has held this elected office since his 2010. So it took him nearly a decade to start restoring public confidence in his office and the criminal justice system as a whole. Not only has he failed to adequately repair the damage caused by prosecutorial misconduct, but he continues to operate in secret. lack of transparency with the public and the press when questioned about prosecutorial misconduct rampant in his office.
No one should be above the rule of law, no matter how serious the crime is, or whether the prosecutor has the zeal to win the case. The Arizona Supreme Court has a chance to finally curb this culture of prosecutorial impunity. It needs to be made clear that Martinez’s unethical behavior will not be tolerated in the criminal justice system, especially when people’s lives are at stake.
