A judge’s refusal to excuse two jurors from a Maricopa County death penalty trial did not end prosecutors’ effort to assess them: prosecutors later used police detectives and a confidential FBI database to investigate the jurors without notifying the court, defense, or jurors. One of them, Jillian Barfield, says the tactic may have violated her civil rights.
The dispute arose during the capital trial of Franklin Clifton, who was found guilty of first-degree murder on January 10, 2026, and sentenced to death on January 29, 2026, for the October 2014 fatal shooting of Olivia Hernandez and the non-fatal shooting of another woman in Phoenix, according to KTAR News. ABC15 Arizona reported that prosecutors Kristin Larish and Heather Livingstone asked Judge Monica Edelstein last September to remove two jurors, citing their demeanor and body language. After Edelstein denied the request, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office had detectives investigate them, including by searching the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, the outlet reported.
Barfield, who served five months on the Clifton jury, told ABC15 she considered the NCIC search unwarranted and believed it may have violated her civil rights and the FBI’s rules for using the database.
What the Database Searches Turned Up
The NCIC is an FBI database restricted to law enforcement. Unauthorized use is a Class 6 felony under Arizona law, according to ABC15. In one search described by the station, a panelist identified only as Juror 42 was found to have been a crime victim and to have had a sealed, dismissed case involving the shoplifting of baby formula. Juror 42 was ultimately dismissed from the case.
What NCIC rules say—and what remains unsettled
The FBI’s 2019 CJIS Security Policy says personally identifiable information extracted from criminal justice information is for official business only and calls on agencies to establish policies governing its handling. Arizona DPS says agencies that handle ACJIS or NCIC information must follow established policies and regulations, but that general requirement does not specifically address jury selection. Questions about the searches remain unresolved.
After the searches, Judge Edelstein ordered the county attorney’s office to brief the court on whether using NCIC to investigate jurors was permissible under Arizona criminal law, ABC15 reported. A related court order was sealed the day after the station began asking questions about the case. The office argued that the state could use NCIC to research jurors and that the court did not need to decide the issue. Edelstein ultimately concluded that no issue needed to be resolved at that time.
A System Built Without Peremptory Strikes
The legal question arises under Arizona’s jury-selection rules, which have no peremptory challenges. Arizona became the first state in the nation to eliminate them when the Arizona Supreme Court issued Order R-21-0020 in August 2021, amending Rules 18.4 and 18.5 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure effective January 1, 2022, according to the Harvard Law Review. Prosecutors must now show a judge legal cause to remove a juror, rather than relying on intuition or an unexplained preference.
Defense attorney and legal expert Will Snowden told ABC15 that investigating jurors after a judge denies a cause strike could become a way to remove people without a legitimate reason. Legal experts described the practice to the station as unprecedented and harmful to the jury system. Pima County public defender David Euchner characterized the conduct as unethical and dishonorable, and said it could be illegal.
A Congressional Candidate Among the Jurors
Barfield's situation carries an added wrinkle: Ballotpedia says she completed a candidate survey in 2025 and did not appear on the July 21, 2026, primary ballot. MCAO has denied that Barfield's political candidacy played any role in the decision to investigate her, per ABC15's reporting.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell responded to ABC15’s description of the investigation. The office told the station it does not know how often it has used NCIC to investigate jurors, but said such reviews are rare and occur only when good cause appears. MCAO is considering a formal policy for NCIC use in juror investigations, and both the office and Maricopa County Superior Court are reviewing their policies; neither has finalized changes.
Echoes of a Past Ethics Scandal
MCAO's history with juror privacy controversies in capital cases predates this incident. Former MCAO capital prosecutor Juan Martinez consented to disbarment in July 2020 following a State Bar of Arizona ethics investigation that included allegations he leaked a juror's identity during the death penalty trial of Jodi Arias, according to the Associated Press.
Court officials told ABC15 that its reporting raises issues for the court’s Jury Advisory Committee to evaluate and emphasized that juror qualification remains the court’s responsibility. The court has not directed MCAO to stop using NCIC to investigate jurors, the station reported. Attorney Esther Hong said the practice needs a clear ruling, potentially from the Arizona Supreme Court. ABC15 said it spent nearly a year reviewing court records and interviewing legal experts before publishing its findings.
