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Bill Montgomery

Martinez “Reassigned” to Prosecuting Vehicle Thefts

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*** UPDATE: The Court of Appeals will be livestreaming the initial oral arguments in relation to Jodi’s case. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10am on Oct. 17 inside Courtroom 2 in the Arizona State Courts Building. Live video links will be posted in this website on that date. Click here for further details. ***

From ABC15 Arizona:

“Juan Martinez, who for years tried homicide cases as part of the office’s capital litigation unit including the murder trial of Jodi Arias, has been moved to prosecuting vehicle thefts, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the personnel decisions within the county attorney’s office.

The auto theft bureau handles “the specialized prosecution of auto theft and auto theft related crimes,” according to its website.

*** CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY & VIDEO @ ABC15 ***

The decision to shift Martinez’s assignment comes less than three weeks after Martinez’s former boss, Bill Montgomery, was named a justice on the Arizona Supreme Court by Governor Doug Ducey. Since then, the county attorney’s office has been led by Chief Deputy Rachel Mitchell.

Mitchell released the following statement Tuesday evening:

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office remains focused on serving victims and providing justice to our community with fairness and equality. With this in mind, I have recently reassigned Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez from the Capital Litigation Bureau to the Auto Theft Bureau. The cases assigned to our Capital Litigation Bureau are very time intensive and demand the assigned prosecutor’s undivided effort and attention. Given the Arizona Bar proceedings involving Mr. Martinez, I felt it was important to assign him a caseload that would be more flexible and allow him to take time when needed to focus on resolving these complaints. This decision does not delay the prosecution of any capital cases. To ensure this, the cases assigned to Mr. Martinez that are currently in trial or pending remand will remain with him as the lead prosecutor. This will ensure justiceis not delayed and both victims and defendants are given due process. Finally, I want to ensure due process is given to Mr. Martinez in the bar complaints, and this move should not be viewed as prejudging the outcome of the proceedings.

Documents obtained by ABC15 show Martinez’s conduct stretches back thirty years.

The State Bar has also accused Martinez of leaking confidential information to a blogger during the Arias trial with whom he was allegedly having an affair.”

*** CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY & VIDEO @ ABC15 ***

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $105,670.98 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WE ARE TEAM JODI – AND WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS in our quest for JUSTICE FOR JODI.

Make no mistake.

Believe it.

Prepare for it.

Be part of it.

As always, be sure to leave your relevant thoughts & comments below…

SJ
Team Jodi #WINNING <<<

Click the banner below to read Jade’s post – “Justice Denied: Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State’s Case Against Jodi Arias.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Bill Montgomery Accused of Covering Up Martinez Misconduct

Published on

*** UPDATE: The Court of Appeals will be livestreaming the initial oral arguments in relation to Jodi’s case. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10am on Oct. 17 inside Courtroom 2 in the Arizona State Courts Building. Live video links will be posted in this website on that date. Click here for further details. ***

A sweeping new ethics complaint by lawyers for Jodi Arias accuses Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery of covering up misconduct by his lead prosecutor in the infamous murder case.

The complaint, filed Tuesday with the State Bar of Arizona, alleges Montgomery allowed prosecutor Juan Martinez to engage in unethical conduct during the trial and took steps to make sure the public would not find out about it.

Lawyer Karen Clark said Montgomery failed to supervise Martinez. She alleges he blocked public records from being released, including personnel records and depositions of employees who complained Martinez harassed them.

Clark also filed an ethics complaint against Martinez, citing new evidence that shows he wrote his tell-all book about the Arias case while the trial was unfolding. She has previously accused Martinez of giving a blogger and a media personality unprecedented access to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and case files during the trial.

Martinez has been the subject of at least seven bar complaints since 2015. The county has paid out more than $150,000 in attorney’s fees to defend Martinez.

The State Bar in December accused Martinez of unethical conduct in five murder cases over a 10-year period, including Arias’ case.

The Bar said Martinez:

  • Compared a Jewish defense attorney to Adolf Hitler.
  • Asked jurors how they would like to be strangled by the defendant.
  • Disregarded instructions not to repeat telling jurors that the father of a victim could never call his son again.
  • Asked jurors to imagine having their throats slit by the defendant (the conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016).
  • Told a defense lawyer during a trial sidebar that he would “f–king want to kill myself” if he were married to her and later said that she should go back to law school.

The crux of the latest complaint was Martinez’s relationship with bloggers during the trial. It alleged Martinez engaged in flirtatious or sexual relationships with the women to get inside information on the jury. The complaint also alleged he used the women to leak information about the case on social media.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY @ ABC15

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $105,426.47 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WE ARE TEAM JODI – AND WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS in our quest for JUSTICE FOR JODI.

Make no mistake.

Believe it.

Prepare for it.

Be part of it.

As always, be sure to leave your relevant thoughts & comments below…

SJ
Team Jodi #WINNING <<<

Click the banner below to read Jade’s post – “Justice Denied: Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State’s Case Against Jodi Arias.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Bill Montgomery Opposes Wrongful Conviction Ethics Rule

Published on

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Check out the info below from the Phoenix New Times blog.

It relates to Bill Montgomery’s ongoing attempts to oppose rulings that would basically force prosecutors to reveal evidence of wrongful convictions… of which Arizona has more that its fair share.

Why are we not surprised?

Here’s the article:

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“As Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery fights to keep Debra Milke behind bars pending a retrial on her overturned murder conviction, he also is fighting a proposed rule to the State Bar of Arizona that would require prosecutors to act on new evidence of a wrongful conviction.

For the past two years, the Arizona Justice Project has petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to change the State Bar of Arizona’s ethics rules, adding a provision based on the American Bar Association’s Ethical Rule 3.8.

The ABA’s rule states that if a prosecutor discovers “new, credible, and material evidence” of a wrongful conviction, he or she must disclose the evidence to the defendant and “undertake further investigation or make reasonable efforts to cause an investigation, to determine whether the defendant was convicted of an offense that the defendant did not commit.”

In a county that has given us the wrongful murder conviction of Ray Krone, the extra-constitutional antics of disbarred former county attorney Andrew Thomas, and now the overturned conviction of Debra Milke, whose still-warm spot on death row was secured via the testimony of a Phoenix Police Detective with a long history of lying and abuse of authority, a rule such as this would seem a no-brainer.

But not to Montgomery, who still wants his prosecutors to have the ability to hide the football after a conviction without fear of sanction by the state Bar.

In a comment to the court penned by Mark Faull, Monty’s chief deputy, Faull argues that these “new obligations” would be “confusing and burdensome” and that there is “no convincing evidence that Arizona has a ‘problem’ of wrongful convictions” or that “prosecutors have failed to take corrective action when appropriate.”

This proves conclusively that at least some prosecutors come from an imaginary planet where unethical behavior by their tribe does not exist.

By way of rebuttal, Larry Hammond of Arizona Justice Project points to “a recent study of Arizona appellate opinions between just 2004 and 2008 [that] revealed 20 cases of prosecutorial misconduct.”

Indeed, the National Registry of Exonerations lists 12 Arizona convictions dating back to 1977, including Krone’s, where those convicted were exonerated.

Hammond and the other petitioners note some Arizona cases in one filing, where they argue that the court should include the ABA’s requirement that the prosecutor investigate any new evidence.

Prosecutors already are required to turn over exculpatory material to the defense during a trial, so why not after conviction?

Because prosecutors, on the whole, do not like to relinquish a victory.

But it seems particularly rich that Montgomery would be opposing such a rule while looking to hang Debra Milke, for the second time, on the testimony of a deceitful cop.

And yet, Montgomery and other prosecutors want us all to trust that they would never hide the football from the defense, particularly when the accused’s life hangs in the balance…”

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Leave your thoughts & comments below…

SJ
Team Jodi

We Are Team Jodi ---- And We Will Be Victorious!

Jodi’s lawyers respond to Bill Montgomery

Published on

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Check out the video & info below from AZ Central…

By Michael Kiefer / AZcentral.com:

“… but on May 23, the jury reached impasse on whether to sentence her to death or to life in prison. A week later, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said that his office would go forward with the trial to convince a new jury to impose the death penalty, but…

“If they were to make an offer for resolution, I think I have an ethical responsibility to consider that,” he said.

[hdplay id=236 width=500 height=300]

Today Arias’ defense attorneys, Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott issued a joint statement in an exclusive to The Arizona Republic.

“If the diagnosis made by the State’s psychologist is correct, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is seeking to impose the death penalty upon a mentally ill woman who has no prior criminal history,” they wrote. “Despite Mr. Montgomery’s recent statements to the media, it is not incumbent upon Ms. Arias’ defense counsel to resolve this case. Instead, the choice to end this case sits squarely with Mr. Montgomery and his office.

“It is solely for them to determine if continuing to pursue a death sentence upon Ms. Arias, who is already facing a mandatory life sentence, is a good and proper use of taxpayer resources.”

The decision will indeed be up to Montgomery. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens has set a tentative court date of July 18 to seat a new jury just to consider the death penalty, but Willmott has already indicated that she has a scheduling conflict then.

Montgomery’s statement that he would consider “offers” from the defense indicates he might consider concessions from Arias, such as not pursuing appeals. But courthouse regulars suggest that Arias, 32, could just as easily take her chances going back to trial. And in the event she gets death, she would have 20 years or so to do battle in state and federal appeals court to try to get a lesser sentence or a new trial.

Ultimately, however, offers have to come from Montgomery. His office, not the judge, makes the decision to seek the death penalty. And at this point, because Arias is already convicted of first-degree murder, there is no need to reach a settlement with Arias in order for her to be sentenced to life in prison. Montgomery only has to lift the intent to seek the death penalty and she would receive a mandatory life sentence.

Judge Sherry Stephens would then choose between life in prison or natural life in prison. The former is frequently referred to as “life with chance of parole after 25 years,” but that is a misnomer often used even during court proceedings.

Arizona discontinued parole for first-degree murderers in 1994. Anyone sentenced since then might be sentenced to life with possibility of release after 25 years. Parole is only available for those who committed murders before 1994.

“Now the only chance of release is commutation from the governor through the Board of Executive Clemency,” a more difficult process, said Ron Reinstein, a retired Superior Court judge who chairs the Arizona Supreme Court’s capital case oversight committee.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” he said.

And given the fact that the jury found an aggravating factor in Arias’ case, it’s unlikely Stephens would impose that sentence.

If she had committed the murder after 2012, release after 25 years would not even be an option, because the Arizona State Legislature has abolished the sentence for premeditated first-degree murder. It is still a possibility for juveniles convicted of murder or adults convicted of first-degree felony murder, which means that someone was killed during the commission of another felony.”

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Leave your comments below peeps!

SJ
Team Jodi

If you would like to help Jodi by way of a financial donation via check or PayPal, click the Team Jodi link below for further details. All donations go directly to the Arias family…

We Are Team Jodi ---- And We Will Be Victorious!