Court‑led settlement push in capital cases

Arizona’s Maricopa County Superior Court has started issuing orders requiring prosecutors and defense counsel to attend settlement conferences two years after a notice to seek the death penalty, a judicial effort to force earlier resolution of capital matters. The change responds to investigative data showing prosecutors pursued capital punishment frequently but obtained death sentences in only 13% of cases, prompting questions about prosecutorial discretion, case churn, and court capacity. — This matters because it shows courts using procedural levers to curb prosecutorial overreach and reduce multi‑year capital‑case backlogs, with implications for fairness, resource allocation, oversight, and potential pressure on plea bargaining in death‑penalty jurisdictions.