KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) — An inmate on Arizona's death row for a pair of killings committed 23 years ago in Mohave County and who reportedly had cancer has died.
The state Department of Corrections and attorneys for Robert W. Murray said he died June 28, and the attorneys said in a court filing that Murray had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Murray's death was reported by the Kingman Daily Miner (http://bit.ly/1j91sg2).
Citing privacy of medical records, corrections spokesman Doug Nick said he could say only that Murray died of natural causes and that he was being treated for a medical condition.
The Pinal County medical examiner will determine cause of death, Nick said.
Murray and brother Roger W. Murray were convicted in the 1991 killings of a couple who owned a store and restaurant in Grasshopper Junction, a tiny village on U.S. 93 north of Kingman.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March turned down appeals filed on behalf of the brothers in the killings of Dean Morrison, 65, and Jacqueline Appelhans, 60.
The brothers were captured near Holbrook in eastern Arizona, running their car into a ditch after a chase with police.
Robert Murray wrote a book in which he denied committing the murders.
The Arizona Capitol Times reported last year that Murray was informed in June 2013 that he had cancer that had gone untreated and unknown to him for seven months though the disease had been diagnosed by medical personnel after his tonsils were removed.
"It was prayer, luck it just didn't explode like it could have," Murray told the newspaper.
Source: AP, July 8, 2014
