ARS Solicitation: Classification, Penalties, and Defenses

Solicitation under ARS 13-1002 is a standalone Arizona crime: asking, encouraging, or pressuring another person to commit an offense, with genuine intent that the offense occur, is itself punishable, even if the other person refuses and nothing further happens. The charge sits two felony levels below the crime you allegedly tried to set in motion, so penalties run from 30 days in jail at the low end to 8.75 years in prison at the high end.¹

What Counts as Solicitation

Two things have to line up. You need criminal intent, and you need a specific communication aimed at another person asking them to engage in conduct that would be a crime or make them an accomplice.¹ Thinking about a crime isn’t enough. Offhand remarks aren’t enough either.

The specificity matters. Saying “someone should rob that place” over drinks is vague talk. Saying “go rob the store on Fifth Street tonight and I’ll split it with you” is the kind of concrete instruction prosecutors build cases on. Arizona courts look at whether the words were explicit enough to show a real plan.

One detail trips people up: the crime is complete the moment the request leaves your mouth. The other person doesn’t have to agree, act, or even answer. Arizona’s Supreme Court held that solicitation is finished when the solicitor communicates the request with criminal intent.² A flat “no” from the other person doesn’t undo it.

How Arizona Classifies the Charge

Arizona ties the solicitation class to the class of the target crime, stepping down two levels. Felony target crimes produce felony solicitation charges until you reach Class 5, where things cross into misdemeanor territory.¹

Soliciting a Class 1 felony: Class 3 felony
Soliciting a Class 2 felony: Class 4 felony
Soliciting a Class 3 felony: Class 5 felony
Soliciting a Class 4 felony: Class 6 felony
Soliciting a Class 5 felony: Class 1 misdemeanor
Soliciting a Class 6 felony: Class 2 misdemeanor
Soliciting a misdemeanor: Class 3 misdemeanor

The biggest practical jump sits between soliciting a Class 4 felony and soliciting a Class 5 felony. That one step is the difference between a felony record with potential prison time and a Class 1 misdemeanor served in county jail.

Felony Penalties

For a first-time offender with no aggravating or mitigating factors, the court imposes the presumptive sentence. Judges can go higher or lower depending on circumstances.³

Class 3 felony (soliciting a Class 1 felony): presumptive 3.5 years, range 2 years mitigated to 8.75 years aggravated
Class 4 felony (soliciting a Class 2 felony): presumptive 2.5 years, range 1 to 3.75 years
Class 5 felony (soliciting a Class 3 felony): presumptive 1.5 years, range 6 months to 2.5 years
Class 6 felony (soliciting a Class 4 felony): presumptive 1 year, range 4 months to 2 years

Felony fines can reach up to $150,000 per charge.⁴ A felony conviction also creates a permanent record that affects employment, housing, professional licensing, and firearm rights long after the sentence is served.

Misdemeanor Penalties

Once the target offense is a Class 5 felony or lower, the solicitation charge drops to misdemeanor level, served in county jail rather than state prison.⁵

Class 1 misdemeanor (soliciting a Class 5 felony): up to 6 months in jail and a fine up to $2,500
Class 2 misdemeanor (soliciting a Class 6 felony): up to 4 months in jail and a fine up to $750
Class 3 misdemeanor (soliciting any misdemeanor): up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $500

Fine caps come from ARS 13-802.⁶ Courts can also order probation instead of or alongside jail. A Class 1 misdemeanor still appears on background checks and can complicate licensing or security clearance applications.

Statute of Limitations

For felony solicitation (Class 3 through Class 6), the state has seven years from the date it discovers the offense or should have discovered it with reasonable diligence. For misdemeanor solicitation, the window is one year.⁷

Because the clock runs from discovery rather than from the solicitation itself, old conduct can surface years later if a witness comes forward or evidence turns up in an unrelated investigation.

Defenses

Lack of Specific Intent

Solicitation requires that you genuinely intended for the crime to happen. Sarcastic, hypothetical, or joking remarks that someone else took seriously don’t satisfy the intent element. Prosecutors will push back with context: your relationship with the person you spoke with, prior planning, follow-up messages, any preparatory steps. When the evidence genuinely shows no real plan, challenging intent can lead to dismissal or acquittal.

Vague or Ambiguous Communication

The statute requires a request to engage in “specific conduct” that would constitute a crime.¹ If the alleged communication was too general to identify a particular offense, the charge may not hold up. Text messages and recorded calls cut both ways: they help the state pin down what was said, and they can also show the language was less incriminating than claimed.

Renunciation

Arizona recognizes renunciation under ARS 13-1005, but the bar is high. You have to show a voluntary and complete change of heart, notify the person you solicited that you’re calling it off, and give law enforcement a timely warning or make another reasonable effort to prevent the crime.⁸

Backing out because you thought you were about to get caught doesn’t count. Neither does postponing the crime or switching targets. The warning to law enforcement must be early enough that police could realistically act on it. Simply telling the person solicited to forget about it, with nothing else, will not meet the standard.⁸

Entrapment and the Peace Officer Exception

Peace officers acting within the scope of their duties are expressly carved out of the solicitation statute. Undercover officers running a sting cannot be charged for asking a suspect to participate in a crime.¹ The exception covers conduct in the line of duty, not personal activity by an off-duty officer.

On the defense side, entrapment is an affirmative defense you must prove by clear and convincing evidence. You have to establish three things:⁹

The idea for the crime originated with law enforcement or their agents, not with you
Officers urged and induced you to commit the offense
You were not already predisposed to commit this type of crime

Predisposition is where most entrapment claims fail. Any prior history or independent willingness to engage in that type of crime will defeat the defense. Officers merely providing an opportunity, using a ruse, or concealing their identity does not qualify as entrapment.⁹ There’s a procedural catch too: raising entrapment requires you to admit the elements of the offense. You cannot deny the solicitation and claim entrapment at the same time.

What Happens If the Crime Actually Occurs

Solicitation is an inchoate offense, punishing conduct that stops short of the completed crime. When the target crime does go forward, the solicitation charge generally merges into the completed offense or an attempt charge, so prosecutors typically cannot stack a solicitation conviction on top of a conviction for the finished crime arising from the same conduct.

Conspiracy is the exception. If you and the person solicited actually reached an agreement and took steps toward the crime, the state can charge conspiracy as a separate offense. Conspiracy requires a mutual agreement between at least two people and does not merge with either the solicitation or the completed crime, which means a single course of conduct can produce charges for both conspiracy and the underlying offense.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-1002 – Solicitation; Classifications
2
Justia Law. State v. Johnson (1982)
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-702 – First Time Felony Offenders; Sentencing; Definition
4
Arizona Courts. Criminal Code Sentencing Provisions 2025-2026
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-707 – Misdemeanors; Sentencing
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-802 – Fines for Misdemeanors
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-107 – Time Limitations
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-1005 – Defense for Renunciation
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-206 – Entrapment