Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona

10/02/2026

The death penalty is once again at the center of a national conversation.

This week, Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike. After two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her, the ex*****on was halted and she was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Tennessee has since paused its remaining ex*****on for 2026 and ordered an independent review of what happened.

It is a difficult moment—one that forces us to confront hard questions about punishment, accountability, victims, and what we ask the government to do in the name of justice.

Next week, Arizonans will have an opportunity to be part of that conversation.

Join us in Tucson or Mesa for a special screening of the award-winning documentary The Window on Death Row, followed by an in-person conversation with director Linda Freund.

The film follows Joaquín José Martínez, who at 24 years old found himself facing a death sentence, and the extraordinary journey through the criminal legal system that challenged what he believed about punishment and justice.

📍 TUCSON
Friday, October 9 | 6:30 PM
The Loft Cinema

📍 MESA
Saturday, October 10 | 1:00 PM
ASU MIX Center

🎟️ Seats are going quickly. Reserve yours soon:
tr.ee/dpaevents

10/02/2026

Colleen Slemmer was murdered. Her life mattered. Her family’s grief matters. And their desire for accountability matters.

We can hold those truths while also confronting what happened in Tennessee this week.

On September 30, Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection. After two doses of pentobarbital were administered, Pike remained alive. She was transported to a hospital in critical condition and required life-saving medical care.

This was Tennessee’s second failed ex*****on attempt in just months.

And Arizona should be paying attention.

Between 2010 and 2022, Arizona ex*****on teams were unable to establish IV access in the arms of 11 of 16 people executed, requiring invasive access to the femoral vein. In 2022 alone, Arizona encountered significant IV difficulties during the ex*****ons of Clarence Dixon, Frank Atwood and Murray Hooper. Concerns about IV placement surfaced again following Richard Djerf’s 2025 ex*****on.

These are not isolated incidents.

Tennessee has now halted ex*****ons for the remainder of 2026 and ordered a review of what happened.

Arizona has not.

No system exercising the irreversible power to take a human life should get to dismiss repeated failures as complications of the process.

Accountability does not require another horrific act of violence.

We can remember Colleen Slemmer, acknowledge the devastating harm that was done, and still reject a system that repeatedly demonstrates that it cannot carry out ex*****ons without the risk of something going terribly wrong.

What happens when it goes wrong here again?

Abolish the death penalty.

Sources: Death Penalty Information Center; Tennessee Department of Correction; Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry.

10/02/2026

Colleen Slemmer’s life mattered and her family has carried the loss of her murder for more than 30 years. Colleen was a beautiful young girl with her whole life ahead of her. She loved computers, she volunteered to help others, her favorite color was purple.

Her family waited for a sentence outcome and traveled to Tennessee to witness the ex*****on, and instead watched the state botch one. Another system failure that leaves this family without an end to legal challenges.

We can hold these truths together. We acknowledge the horror of Colleen’s murder, honor her family’s grief, and recognize their desire for accountability.

We also have to confront the harm done inside Tennessee’s ex*****on chamber.

We should not answer one tragedy by creating another.

10/02/2026

The official who oversaw Arizona's 2022 ex*****on troubles now runs Tennessee's prison department, where a woman's ex*****on was botched Wednesday

09/02/2026

Arizona is moving toward another ex*****on.

Attorney General Kris Mayes has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to set an ex*****on date for Ernesto Martinez, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of DPS Officer Bob Martin. Martinez was 19 years old at the time of the offense.

The request comes just days after the Arizona Supreme Court approved new ex*****on protocols on an emergency basis.

What makes this case particularly notable is that Martinez still has active litigation. His attorneys have a March 1 deadline to file a petition challenging his conviction and sentence and say they plan to raise questions involving evidence in the case, his previous legal representation, and mitigating evidence that was not adequately investigated.

His attorneys are questioning why the state is seeking an ex*****on date before those claims are heard.

We’ll continue following this case and sharing updates as Arizona moves through the ex*****on process.

Article below provides more insight on length of time before ex*****ons.

Before Arizona’s latest ex*****on, which was carried out in March, the average length of stay on death row for the last six inmates who were executed was just over 25 years.

09/01/2026

A profile of Debra Milke, who survived 25 years on Arizona’s death row before her wrongful conviction was undone

08/31/2026

Mark your calendars this September, for The Exonerated, presented by Black Theatre Troupe in Phoenix running September 11th–27th.

The play tells the true stories of six people who were wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death, and ultimately exonerated. Drawn from court transcripts, interviews, letters, and personal accounts, it explores not only how the criminal legal system can get it catastrophically wrong, but what it means for a person to survive years under a sentence of death for something they did not do.

Wrongful convictions aren’t hypothetical. More than 200 people have been exonerated from death row in the United States, and Arizona has its own painful history of getting these cases wrong.

We are excited to see a local theater bringing these stories to an Arizona audience. Art and storytelling can reach people in ways that policy reports, statistics, and legislative hearings simply can’t.

🎭 The Exonerated
📅 September 11–27, 2026
📍 Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center
1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix

Support local theater. Listen to the stories of people who survived the unimaginable. And keep asking what justice should actually look like when a system has the power to take a life.

Get your tickets: https://www.blacktheatretroupe.org/exonerated

08/12/2026

Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma plan to execute inmates on the same day this week. That would make Thursday the first time in nearly 16 years that three ex*****ons occur on the same day in the U.S.

08/08/2026

Dr Mark Fowler assisted in the failed ex*****on of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients - why is he working in the death chamber?

08/06/2026

You might be surprised to learn that there was a time in American history when the death penalty was illegal — everywhere. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all of the death penalty laws around the country violated the Constitution. They were, essentially, too arbitrary.