DataArizona  

• 40 days

  Days to respond to our FOIA request

• $88.90

  Amount charged to request information

Like most other states, Arizona does not have a statute specifically codifying felony murder, which would make it easier to identify and isolate felony murder conviction data. Instead, as in most other states, felony murder is collapsed under another murder statute. Arizona’s FOIA response grouped all people convicted and sentenced for any and all kinds of murder without any distinction for those convicted and sentenced under felony murder. Due to Arizona’s anonymization procedures, we were not able to cross reference with any other dataset.

Although we appealed the FOIA results and asked for more specific data related to felony murder, they responded that “they do not maintain records in a manner to be responsive to your request.”

"Good morning, We do not maintain records in a manner to provide responsive records to your request. We will c [sic]" Sincerely, Public Access

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In Arizona, felony murder is listed as a subsection in the state’s first degree murder statute. (Arizona Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-1105(A)(2)).

Arizona prosecutors can charge and convict any person of first degree murder without having to prove that they intended to cause another person’s death. Prosecutors must only prove that a person or their accomplice committed a specified felony and that a death occurred “in the course of and in furtherance of the offense or immediate flight from the offense.” Prosecutors can prove first degree murder even when the death was caused by a third non-party (i.e. neither the person nor their accomplice). A conviction for felony murder carries a sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.