by Matthew Holloway | Mar 16, 2026 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Arizona House of Representatives passed legislation last week with bipartisan support, allowing residents to place medical directive information on their state-issued identification cards.
House Bill 2772, sponsored by State Rep. Khyl Powell (R-LD14), was approved by the House on Wednesday and now advances to the Arizona Senate for consideration.
According to a press release from the Arizona House Republican Caucus, the proposal would allow Arizonans to indicate on their driver licenses or nonoperating identification cards that they have a medical directive on file, helping first responders quickly identify a patient’s medical wishes during an emergency.
Medical directives, also known as advance directives, allow individuals to document instructions for medical treatment in the event they are unable to communicate their decisions.
According to the Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry (AzHDR), the number of Arizonans with advance directives has seen significant growth, with over 100,000 advance directives registered with the program from 2019 to 2023, an increase of approximately 34%.
“HB 2772 protects a person’s right to have lawful medical choices recognized when every second matters,” Powell said. “If someone has taken the time to make these decisions with family and medical professionals, the state should not make those wishes harder to find. For someone with a valid directive, this could be the difference between their wishes being honored or missed.
“An orange form sitting on a refrigerator at home does no good if the emergency happens somewhere else. This bill puts that information where it can actually be seen.”
The bill passed the House with bipartisan support, 49–2, and now moves to the Arizona Senate for further consideration.
If approved by the Senate and signed into law, the legislation would add a mechanism for residents to voluntarily indicate the existence of a medical directive on their state-issued identification, allowing emergency responders to locate critical information more quickly.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 25, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona House passed a bill increasing prison time for adults who target teenagers with sexual extortion, or “sextortion.”
HB 2666 passed out of the House with unanimous bipartisan support on Monday. The bill increases the penalty for adults who commit sextortion against minors ages 15 through 17 by increasing the offense level from a class 3 to class 2 felony. It also requires sentencing to be consecutive to any other sentence imposed for sextortion.
The bill would prohibit offenders from eligibility for sentencing suspension, probation, pardon, or release from confinement unless the court-imposed sentence has been served or commuted.
Arizona statute already has sextortion of minors under the age of 15 listed as a class 2 felony.
The bill did receive an amendment to address certain concerns by stakeholders.
Vicky Lopez, an attorney with Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice (AACJ), spoke against the bill during its committee hearing. Lopez expressed concerns that the bill as written would provide offenders with an affirmative defense that they didn’t know their victim’s age, and that the bill failed to address the circumstance of both the offender and victim being minors.
The Arizona Anti-Trafficking Network and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) expressed support for the bill as written. The MCAO said it was against amending the bill.
Rebecca Baker on behalf of the MCAO rejected AACJ’s stance that this bill would provide an affirmative defense, and that minor offenders shouldn’t be held equally accountable.
“We’re talking about coerced conduct. We’re talking about one person forcing another person to have sex, and that’s analogous to sexual assault. I see that very differently than something like sexual conduct with a minor or even exchanging photos openly that are somehow later misused. This is forced conduct,” said Baker. “Regardless of whether the perpetrator is 15, 16, 17, or even 35, it’s still having that same effect on the victim.”
However, legislators who spoke up on the bill during the committee hearing seemed inclined to agree with AACJ. One committee member, Rep. Khyl Powell (R-LD14), agreed that minor offenders needed to have special considerations.
“I want discretion to be given back to judges. If we’re going to protect our juveniles who do something stupid, then we need to open up the door and give back to the judges’ discretion,” said Powell. “If we continue to mandate and we lock in these laws, then we will create additional victims.”
The bill author, Rep. Pamela Carter (R-LD4), said in a press release on Monday that sextortion of minors was an especially heinous type of exploitation that merits a harsher punishment.
“Sexual extortion is hitting Arizona teens hard, and the predators behind it know exactly what they’re doing,” said Carter. “If you prey on teens for money or sexual favors, you should face a class 2 felony and mandatory consecutive prison time. No probation. No shortcuts. No easy way out.”
Sextortion crimes occur often through social media platforms, namely Snapchat, Instagram, and Discord.
One recent case that occurred in Arizona concerned a ringleader of an online violent terror network, 764. The Tucson man arrested for those crimes, Baron Martin, was arrested in December 2024 for committing sextortion against minors. This past October, Martin was indicted on 29 charges.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Mar 5, 2025 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Another criminal justice-related bill is making its way through the Arizona Legislature.
Last week, the Arizona House of Representatives approved HB 2813 “to provide compensation for individuals who were wrongfully convicted and incarcerated in Arizona.” The legislation received a unanimous vote of support from lawmakers.
In a statement accompanying the progress of the proposal, State Representative Khyl Powell, the sponsor of the legislation, said, “Accountability applies to everyone – people, institutions, and government itself. When the state wrongfully takes years of someone’s life, it has a responsibility to make things right. I sponsored HB 2813 to ensure that Arizona acknowledges its mistakes, takes responsibility, and provides meaningful compensation to those who have been unjustly imprisoned.”
Powell added, “Government must work for the people, not against them. This bill ensures that those who have been wronged by the system are not left to pick up the pieces on their own.”
According to the press release issued by the Arizona House Republicans, the bill “establishes clear procedures for individuals who have been exonerated to seek compensation from the state. Under the bill, wrongfully convicted Arizonans will receive 200% of the median household income for each year they were incarcerated and have access to critical resources such as mental health treatment, education, and financial planning services to help rebuild their lives. The legislation also mandates the immediate expungement of all records associated with the erroneous conviction, ensuring that exonerated individuals are no longer burdened by a past that was never theirs to bear.”
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Justice Project, American Civil Liberties Union of AZ, Arizona National Organization for Women, and Arizona Faith Network signed in to support the bill. Representatives from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Arizona Association of Counties indicated their opposition to the proposal.
HB 2813 will now be considered by the Arizona Senate.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
