Our founders wisely recognized that the jury was the ultimate arbiter of both justice and common sense. That is why both the U.S. and Arizona constitutions give all citizens a right to a trial by jury in criminal proceedings. As citizens, we all have a sacred duty to honor and uphold these documents.
Speaking of the importance of juries, John Adams wrote, “It is not only the juror’s right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience.” Yet, we have allowed these principles to be undermined and now unconstitutionally let judges decide on the appropriate punishment for criminal defendants. Judges are, in many instances, bureaucrats with life tenure. They should not have that kind of power.
If someone dies from drugs, Arizona law already allows the person who gave them those drugs to be sent to prison for up to 25 years. HB2167 now also seeks to allow judges to punish them for murder. There are certainly some circumstances where this would be just. Cartel members who make their living selling fatal doses of fentanyl should be locked up and the key thrown away. But HB2167 does not just apply to cartel members, is not limited to fentanyl, and allows people to be convicted of murder without the state needing to prove that they had killed anyone. If your kid goes to college and stupidly shares some drugs with a friend, and that friend later dies while doing something stupid, then your kid should be locked up – but not for lifetime.
Of course, none of this is a problem if our courts just used common sense, but they don’t. That is why the proposed amendment to HB2167 would allow normal people, who do have common sense, to decide whether it is just to punish someone as a murderer given the facts and circumstances of a particular case.
As President Trump learned, overly broad criminal laws rarely work the way they are intended. The justice system has been weaponized by the left and even “Republican” County Attorneys do the left’s bidding. We create more and more crimes. We never eliminate stupid crimes. We create harsher and harsher punishments. We never reduce punishments that are so harsh as to be unjust. We have created a system where everything is a crime, and every crime is punishable by decades in jail. In such a system, bad actors like George Soros, and the County Attorneys he is putting in place will wield ultimate power. Rest assured that power will not be used in the way that you think. It will not be used to punish the cartels. It will be used against you and your family in surprising ways. The jury is our last line of defense.
I strongly urge you to let the sponsor of this House Bill know that you support the amendment to HB2167. He can be reached at qnguyen@azleg.gov.