Kent E Cattani

Judge

Arizona Court of Appeals - Division One

was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals on February 9, 2013. At the time of his appointment, he was an Assistant Arizona Attorney General, serving as Solicitor General, overseeing criminal appeals, capital litigation, and civil appeals.

Kent earned his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986, and he worked in private practice for 5 years before joining the Attorney General's Office in 1991. For the next 22 years, he represented the State of Arizona in state and federal court, briefing over 200 appellate cases, and arguing more than 95 cases in the Arizona Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Kent provided testimony to the United States Senate and House of Representatives regarding federal habeas and death penalty issues, and he helped draft legislation and worked with the Arizona legislature in addressing a variety of criminal law issues. He also led the Attorney General's efforts to study lessons learned from DNA exonerations.

Kent is currently serving as Vice Chief of Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals. He is also the Vice-Chair of Arizona's Forensic Science Advisory Committee, and he serves as a member of a federal organization (Organization of Scientific Area Committees) charged with promulgating standards for the various forensic science disciplines.