A Fountain Hills man could become the first person in Arizona to be executed over a fatal car crash.

The jury that condemned Frank Roque of Mesa to death row Thursday believed the world would judge America on its decision.

Jeffrey Martinson will no longer face the death penalty in the case of his 5-year-old son’s 2004 death in Ahwatukee Foothills.

TRENTON, N.J. - Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is asking the Legislature to force Arizona’s courts to follow strict deadlines on bringing death penalty cases to trial and in hearing postconviction appeals.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The prosecutor in the Saddam Hussein trial demanded the death penalty Monday for the deposed leader and two of his top co-defendendants.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, linking him directly to the horrific Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and concluding that his lies to FBI agents led to at least one death on that day.

A death-row inmate who admitted to killing his 2-year-old daughter by setting her on fire will get another chance to avoid execution. The Arizona Supreme Court unanimously decided Tuesday that Shawn Grell did not give up his right to a jury sentencing when he waived his right to a jury trial in 2000.

April 20, 2005

Arthur Curthoys asked his defense attorney to let him accept the death penalty shortly after he smashed his wife’s skull repeatedly with a hammer and left her in a pool of blood on the floor of their Mesa home.

December 7, 2004

An Ahwatukee Foothills woman convicted last month of killing her terminally ill husband must now fight for her life.

November 23, 2004

Jurors in the death penalty trial of a Phoenix man will hear dueling theories Thursday of how a Scottsdale man and his married girlfriend died four years ago.

Arizona's death penalty process has wrongly sentenced people to die and is so badly flawed that capital punishment should be halted until the system is fixed, according to criticisms of a report to be released this week by the Capital Case Commission.

By a count of 49 to 1, a House committee says the penalty for broadcasting raunchy material should be hiked to half a million dollars.

When a University of Arizona criminology professor asked a class of about 100 students how many of them would be willing to “turn the switch” on a death row inmate to facilitate an execution, Terry Rubey was the only one who raised his hand.

Opponents of the death penalty will hold a candlelight vigil for death row inmate Donald Beaty at the State Capitol in downtown Phoenix on Tuesday.

Dan K. Thomasson, commentary

PHOENIX - A public defender says a possibility of the death penalty in the Arizona shooting rampage complicates the search for lawyers to represent the suspect.