Unklesbay, Rick

Part 1 of 2 was recorded on November 28th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. It covers the following themes: 

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• Overview of life before moving to Tucson for college in 1972. 

• Experience at the University of Arizona. Basketball. Political science. 

• Law school at the University of Arizona. 

• Pima County trial rates under County Attorney Steve Neeley in the late 1970s early 1980s. 

• Staring with the Pima County Attorney’s Office in 1981. 

• Working at Pima County Juvenile Court in the early 1980s. 

• Taking on adult cases in 1983. 

• Relations between County Prosecutor and Public Defenders. 

• Early 1980s war on drugs. 

• Prosecuting robberies and homicides. First individual case. 

• Challenges of working with victim’s families. 

• Attitudes towards the death penalty from the 1980s to 2000s. 

• Changes in types of crimes over career. 

• Increase in state-mandated sentences and decrease in judicial discretion.  

• Relationship between County Attorney’s Office and law enforcement. 

• Starting a conviction integrity unit in 2014 to review fairness of old sentences. 

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Part 2 of 2 was recorded on January 25th, 2023 in Tucson, Arizona. It covers the following themes: 

• Spike in violent juvenile crime during the late 1980s-early 1990s. Carjackings.  

• Growing interest in the context of crimes and diversion programs in the mid 2000s. 

• Evolving attitudes on drug prosecutions. 

• Growing prison populations. 

• Conversations with state legislators about prosecutorial tools. 

• The reality and perception of gang activity in Tucson. 

• Several 1990s crimes and rise of “stranger danger.” 

• Attorney’s Office relationship with media. 

• Immigration-related cases. 

• Pima County Attorney’s Office changes between Steve Neely and Barbara LaWall in the mid-1990s. 

• Plea agreements and the challenges of trying cases. 

• Rise of diversion programs, juvenile justice commissions, drug court. 

• The January 8th, 2011 shooting. 

• The Gary Triano bombing.