Effective Public Safety

While Arizona pours hundreds of millions into poor public policy, thousands of crimes, like homicide and missing persons cases remain unsolved. Families are left without answers, and communities live with the reality that violent offenders may remain free. At the same time, Arizona’s justice system continues to wrestle with wrongful convictions, some tied directly to inadequate or outdated forensic practices.

Arizona must make fiscal expansion for forensic science a top priority:

• Fully fund DNA and forensic backlogs, ensuring no evidence sits on a shelf while families wait for justice.

• Invest in genealogical technology that has already cracked cold cases across the country but remains underutilized in Arizona.

• Advance forensic testing to prove innocence claims, giving wrongfully convicted people a fair chance to clear their names.

• Expand digital and technological crime labs, giving investigators the tools they need to keep pace with modern evidence.

• Build dedicated cold case units that partner with communities to solve decades-old homicides.

Forensic innovation is cost-effective, survivor-centered, and justice-focused—it both solves crimes and prevents innocent people from spending their lives behind bars.

Arizona cannot claim to be a leader in Victims Rights while leaving families without answers and frontline investigators without the tools they need. The reality is clear: thousands of cases remain unsolved, families grieve without closure, and law enforcement lacks the resources to bring justice where it’s most needed.

We believe public dollars should be directed to those who do the real work of delivering safety:

• Cold Case Units staffed with experienced investigators, victim advocates, and community liaisons.

• Forensic Labs and Genealogical Testing to speed up casework and use the most advanced tools available.

• Survivor Support Programs that are accessible, comprehensive, and available to every family impacted by violence regardless of court outcome or charging decision.

• Community PartnershipSupport that strengthen funding to community based organization that build trust between families, neighborhoods, and investigators.

This is not just about resources — it’s about respecting the people who keep Arizona safe and ensuring that families of homicide victims are never left behind.

Every dollar wasted on failed policies could instead fund the people and programs that solve crimes and support survivors.

The death penalty is the most expensive and least effective punishment on Arizona’s books. Decades of data show:

• It costs Arizona taxpayers millions more than life imprisonment, with capital trials, appeals, and execution protocols draining state budgets.

• It fails to deter homicide or make communities safer.

• It re-traumatizes homicide victim families through decades of litigation and uncertainty.

• Arizona’s system has been plagued with botched executions, secrecy, and racial disparities.

Every dollar spent on executions is a dollar not spent on solving cold cases, supporting grieving families, or preventing violence. We call for full repeal of Arizona’s death penalty and reinvestment into services that deliver safety and healing.

Arizona has one of the broadest felony murder statutes in the nation. People—often young, often from marginalized communities—are sentenced to life or death for a homicide they did not commit or intend, simply because they were present during another felony.

This law:

• Sweeps up people with no intent to kill, sometimes those who didn’t even know a crime was occurring.

• Fails to deter violence and instead fills prisons with people serving extreme sentences that do not match their culpability.

• Costs taxpayers millions in lifelong incarceration, appeals, and supervision, while families of homicide victims continue to wait for real justice.

We believe Arizona must abolish or narrow its felony murder law, ensuring accountability matches actual responsibility.