PHOENIX — The death penalty is an issue with strong opinions on both sides.
The issue is on the docket again for state lawmakers in Arizona. The bill would send the issue to voters on whether to abolish or keep it.
Should the death penalty be kept or abolished in Arizona? That is the question State Representative Patty Contreras wants voters to decide on.
"I would say abolish it. It's a very tough decision, but two wrongs don't make a right,” said Tim Parkinson, a Phoenix resident.
Executions are set to be reinstated in Arizona following a two-year hiatus. Now, Contreras is reintroducing her measure after it died during the last legislative session.
"Some crimes are so heinous that life in prison doesn't seem to be enough,” said Jim Kevlin, a Tempe resident.
Contreras argues the death penalty is unfairly administered and does not deter crime effectively. She also claims more death row inmates have had their cases overturned, nearly 200 since 1973, because of improved investigative technology like DNA analysis.
But her bill faces an uphill battle in the largely Republican-controlled legislature. Pew Research suggests more than three-quarters of voters who lean Republican say they favor the death penalty for murder convicts. It is more divided on the Democratic side.
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If the bill makes it past the House and Senate, the issue would then go to voters on the ballot in 2026.
"If you kill a child then you deserve death. I mean there's no justice in that, so you deserve to get the death penalty," said Nate Truong, a Glendale resident.
"If you commit a horrible crime and you get the death penalty, like why do you get to take the easy way out? Like why can't you be left to deal with what you've done?" said Gabrielle Benson, a Phoenix resident.
ABC15 reached out to the House Speaker-elect’s Office. They said he has not seen Contreras’s bill yet, and they do not generally comment about a bill’s prospects until the session starts.
The people we spoke with in Scottsdale all had varying opinions on the death penalty, but most of them recognized it is a complicated issue.
"I think a lot of people sit on the fence because they can see both sides, I can see both sides. And as you've said, once it becomes personal, then all that is out the window," said Sylvia Kevlin, a Tempe resident.
