| NEWS | Katya Schwenk Time from p 9 weapons” — must receive a prison sentence. Julie Gunnigle: ‘Eleventh-Hour Election-Related Policies’ Julie Gunnigle, an attorney and Mitchell’s Democratic opponent in the county attorney’s race in November, pushed back on the new guidance. She called the new policy “eleventh- hour election-related policies.” “Communities that face the challenge of gun violence are not made safer by blanket plea policies,” Gunnigle told New Times. She added that the county attorney’s office “needs to arm our prosecutors with more discretion, not less.” Gunnigle said the policy could force prison time on cases where it was inappropriate — for instance, someone threatening self-harm with a firearm, who is ultimately charged with misconduct involving weapons. In prison, she said, “they’re not going to get any treatment. They’re not going to get any better.” Maricopa County prosecutors have long been known for harsh plea bargaining tactics. The Arizona branch of the American Civil Liberties Union is waging an ongoing lawsuit, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced a new plea policy regarding firearms crimes on September 1. Luckey v. Adel, over plea practices it has alleged are coercive. In response to this criticism, Liewer said the county attorney’s office was engaged in other, more reform-minded initiatives to address gun violence — but defended the new plea policies. “Those who commit the violence need to be held accountable. Removing them from the community will reduce the number of cases that include these individuals,” she said. But the office also offers diversion programs to low-level offenders, she added. Liewer declined to comment on the ACLU lawsuit, she said. Mitchell said she could not speak with New Times by deadline but has emphasized that her focus on gun violence prompted the new policies. “I do not want to see Maricopa County become another Chicago,” she told Mike Broomhead of KTAR News on September 1. The homicide rate has increased slightly in Maricopa County since the pandemic, rising from an average of about seven homicides per 100,000 people before the pandemic to now around eight, according to data from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner. In 2021, 77 percent of homicides had a firearm as the manner of death, the highest rate in the last six years. This increase in homicides is in line with national trends. Murders — and gun deaths, specifically — have increased in cities across the country over the last decade, generally regardless of whether city leadership is liberal or conservative. Researchers have cautioned not to attribute the rise to any specific prose- cutorial or law enforcement policies. Gunnigle, long a harsh critic of the county attorney’s office, faces Mitchell in November. She also ran for the seat in 2020, and lost narrowly to Adel. Mitchell, a Republican, won the GOP nomination easily in August. Mitchell has touted her efforts to improve Ash Ponders Democrat Julie Gunnigle faces Rachel Mitchell in the November election for county attorney. the county attorney’s office, which for the past two years has been mired in scandal over bogus prosecutions of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and serious case backlogs. 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 15TH–SEPT 21ST, 2022
