Capitol Punishment

I'm taking a class in this right now so I can talk about almost any aspect of Capital punishment in the US for anyone interested in something specific.

From what you guys are talking about, in the US you're only eligible for the death penalty for 1st degree murder (basically willful and premeditated) and there has to be a presence of a statutory aggrivator (which are enumerated by state statutes) in order for the case to seek the death penalty. After the guilt phase (in which all the jurors have to agree beyond a reasonable doubt) the trial goes to the aggravator phase where the state must again prove to all the jurors (if one juror is unconvinced the state can't give out the death penalty) beyond a reasonable doubt the presence of at least one aggravator. After this the defense can bring forth mitigating circumstances to try and convince the jury to go with life in prison.

The 14 statutory aggrivators in the state of Arizona are:
1. The defendant has been convicted of another offense in the United States for which under Arizona law a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable.
2. The defendant has been or was previously convicted of a serious offense, whether preparatory or completed. Convictions for serious offenses committed on the same occasion as the homicide, or not committed on the same occasion but consolidated for trial with the homicide, shall be treated as a serious offense under this paragraph.
3. In the commission of the offense the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person or persons in addition to the person murdered during the commission of the offense.
4. The defendant procured the commission of the offense by payment, or promise of payment, of anything of pecuniary value.
5. The defendant committed the offense as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt, of anything of pecuniary value.
6. The defendant committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner.
7. The defendant committed the offense while:
(a) In the custody of or on authorized or unauthorized release from the state department of corrections, a law enforcement agency or a county or city jail.
(b) On probation for a felony offense.
8. The defendant has been convicted of one or more other homicides, as defined in section 13-1101, that were committed during the commission of the offense.
9. The defendant was an adult at the time the offense was committed or was tried as an adult and the murdered person was under fifteen years of age, was an unborn child in the womb at any stage of its development or was seventy years of age or older.
10. The murdered person was an on duty peace officer who was killed in the course of performing the officer's official duties and the defendant knew, or should have known, that the murdered person was a peace officer.
11. The defendant committed the offense with the intent to promote, further or assist the objectives of a criminal street gang or criminal syndicate or to join a criminal street gang or criminal syndicate.
12. The defendant committed the offense to prevent a person's cooperation with an official law enforcement investigation, to prevent a person's testimony in a court proceeding, in retaliation for a person's cooperation with an official law enforcement investigation or in retaliation for a person's testimony in a court proceeding.
13. The offense was committed in a cold, calculated manner without pretense of moral or legal justification.
14. The defendant used a remote stun gun or an authorized remote stun gun in the commission of the offense. For the purposes of this paragraph:
(a) "Authorized remote stun gun" means a remote stun gun that has all of the following:
(i) An electrical discharge that is less than one hundred thousand volts and less than nine joules of energy per pulse.
(ii) A serial or identification number on all projectiles that are discharged from the remote stun gun.
(iii) An identification and tracking system that, on deployment of remote electrodes, disperses coded material that is traceable to the purchaser through records that are kept by the manufacturer on all remote stun guns and all individual cartridges sold.
(iv) A training program that is offered by the manufacturer.
(b) "Remote stun gun" means an electronic device that emits an electrical charge and that is designed and primarily employed to incapacitate a person or animal either through contact with electrodes on the device itself or remotely through wired probes that are attached to the device or through a spark, plasma, ionization or other conductive means emitting from the device.