The county pathologist who performed the autopsy on alleged murder victim Faylene Grant in 2001 told a rapt jury yesterday afternoon that he could find “no evidence to support this being a homicide.”   Dr. Arch Mosley, a former Maricopa County assistant medical examiner now working in Coconino County, made the startling comment at the end of an…

In reporting this series, New Times staff writer Paul Rubin spent months at the Maricopa County Juvenile Court in downtown Phoenix. He focused on the work of two Superior Court judges, Michael Kemp and Ronald Reinstein, and on their delinquency and dependency calendars, respectively. Delinquency Court judges hear cases about…

In reporting this series, New Times staff writer Paul Rubin spent months at the Maricopa County Juvenile Court in downtown Phoenix. He focused on the work of two Superior Court judges, Michael Kemp and Ronald Reinstein, and on their delinquency and dependency calendars, respectively. Delinquency court judges hear cases about…

The Death Penalty Information Center out of Washington D.C. sends along a feel-good statistic from 2008: The number of cops killed nationally by gunfire in the recently completed year dropped to its lowest level in about half a century.  (Police later killed the man — the shooting suspect — at 27th Avenue and McDowell…

As rumors go — and this one comes to us from sources inside the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office — it’s a doozy. Yet it’s not implausible. We’re hearing that ambitious County Attorney Andrew Thomas (seen here canoodling with an elderly supporter) is thinking about resigning from office in the next several months…

We remember Glendale cop Matt Brown as one of the better public information officers. Brown always was straight-forward and responsive, and had a sense of humor. Even when was in a hurry, all you had to do was mention Ohio State football and he’d suddenly find all the time in the world to chat. …

  I remember him mentioning a few names: Chuck Kelly, Sam Stanton, and Andy Hall immediately come to mind. Zipser — who had been a star at the Gazette before Mike Lacey recruited him for what became a very successful, if mercurial stint here — also mentioned Al Sitter, whom I…

At the ASU-Idaho State men’s basketball game at the Wells Fargo Arena that just finished a few minutes ago (Sun Devils won 90-55), we couldn’t help but notice a well-lit advertisement at courtside directly across from the official scorer’s table. “East Valley Tribune–Where Local News Is First,” it read.    …

Two wildly divergent high-profile murder trials are well under way at the Maricopa County courthouse in downtown Phoenix. On the 13th floor of the Central Court Building, the prosecution’s case against Doug Grant is ongoing, though at a pace that would frustrate a snail. (New Times has written extensively about…

The folks at the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C. sent us their informative year-end report in the aftermath of our recent piece on 93-year-old Viva Leroy Nash, the senior member of death row here in Arizona and nationwide. It shows that U.S. executions are down more than 60 pecent…

A state appellate court ruling has given new life to a lawsuit filed by the tiny Havasupai nation over blood samples that the tribe was told would be used for the study of tribal diabetes but instead were used for other research. Back in 2004, we wrote “Indian Givers,” a chilling yarn about how…

  We wrote about Viva Leroy Nash, the character shown below, a few weeks ago. Mainly, we took a hard look at his case because, at 93, he’s the oldest man on death row in the United States. We pointed out that, despite being sentenced way back in 1983 to die, Mr. Nash never…

  Let’s cut to the chase on Wednesday’s testimony at Doug Grant’s first-degree murder trial in downtown Phoenix: Grant (pictured) certainly has some major issues, or we (and a slew of national media types) probably wouldn’t be sitting in court watching this proceeding slowly unfold. But key prosecution witness Chad White, a physician…

A few weeks ago, an elderly gentleman named Viva Leroy Nash wrote to New Times about the death penalty. “Now that our stubborn President Bush is about to leave office,” Nash wrote in a shaky hand, “it appears that our overly tenacious state prosecutors won’t be so brazen as to…

This has been a terribly tough year for local sportswriters and, now, announcers. Veteran scribes Bob Moran and Bob Eger died earlier in 2008 — Moran after a long illness and Eger after a short one. Both had been part of the fabric of the local sports scene for as…

Jenna Stradling — the 18-year-old stepdaughter of murder defendant Doug Grant (the smiling guy in the photo) and a key prosecution witness in the high-profile case — finally finished testifying a few hours ago after several tense days on the stand. The Brigham Young University freshman withstood a grueling cross-examination by Grant…

 To be kind, we’re not awfully huge fans of the Arizona Republic around here. But we do admit to a camaraderie with some of the hard-working folks over there who’re currently wondering if they’re going to have a job come Christmas.  Word from inside the newsroom is that the latest round of layoffs is…