By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/20718deathpenalty2famr2fmst2f.html
PHOENIX - State lawmakers should ignore the vote of a special commission and refuse to put the issue of the death penalty before voters, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Matt Salmon said Wednesday.
Salmon said having the Legislature even consider the issue would be a waste of time. He said it is clear most Arizonans support executions.
But Salmon also blamed Attorney General Janet Napolitano, a Democratic candidate for governor, for even allowing the Capital Case Commission to debate and vote on the recommendation.
He said her failure to declare the motion of the panel out of order or even convince it to drop the issue shows she is not qualified to be the state's next chief executive.
The state commission recommended that the Legislature change Arizona's death penalty law to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court decision but also consider having a public vote on keeping the death penalty. Abolition of the death penalty would leave life in prison without parole as the maximum sentence.
Salmon also charged that Napolitano stacked the commission, formed more than two years ago to look at whether changes are needed to keep the state's capital crimes laws legally defensible, with death penalty opponents.
Actually, the motion to ask the Legislature to put the issue before voters came not from criminal defense attorneys but from business lobbyist Jim Bush.
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