Michael Kiefer has been a journalist in Arizona for 31 years, including 16 years at The Arizona Republic and eight at Phoenix New Times. Before that, he was an associate editor at Outside magazine and wrote for numerous publications, including Esquire, Playboy and The New York Times. He witnessed five Arizona executions and covered the topic from state murder trials to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Kiefer is a prolific journalist and author, having published countless articles and seven books. The death penalty is a frequent focus of his work as a reporter, particularly given that he witnessed 5 executions in Arizona and covered 7 other executions during his 16 years at The Arizona Republic. The above video link leads to an interview by PBS in Tucson with Michael Kiefer, in which he speaks of the hold that Arizona had put on executions for several years as a result of the botched executions that had recently occurred. The link provided below leads to a story written by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) about the most recent series (May 2023) that Mr. Kiefer co-authored with Dale Baich (a retired federal public defender who I interviewed in Arizona). Click on the link below to read about the five-part series co-authored by Kiefer and Baich. In the story published by DPIC there are links to each of the 5 parts included within the series, which is titled "Poorly Executed: How Arizona has failed at carrying out the death penalty." The first of the 5-part series is titled "Witness to an Execution." This Part 1 of the series is found at the second link below. The fourth of the 5-part series, titled "The Experiment Failed: "Halting Executions in Arizona," follows and it focuses on the botched execution of Joe Wood in Arizona in 2014. Michael Kiefer was one of the witnesses at this execution (as well as Dale Baich).
On April 20, 2023, I sat down with Michael Kiefer at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah to interview him about his experiences as a witness at 5 Arizona executions, which were carried out during his time serving as a media witness for The Arizona Republic.
Newspaper Series Explores Arizona's Recent Death Penalty History