New program aims to speed up death penalty cases after investigation

The Maricopa County Superior Court has implemented a new program that aims to speed up the time it takes to resolve death penalty cases.

Judges will now issue orders that require the prosecution and defense to meet within two years of the start of capital cases and conduct settlement conferences.

The new program comes after a special ABC15 and ProPublica investigation that uncovered Maricopa County death penalty cases rarely end in death sentences. Of the nearly 350 capital cases prosecuted over the past two decades, only 13% have resulted in a death sentence.

The first orders in the new program were recently filed in the joint death penalty case against Cudjoe Young and Sincere Hayes, who are accused of murdering Mercedes Vega.