Arizona has no record of cash payments totalling $60,000 each made to 2 executioners

Arizona has no receipts for cash payments made to executioners, potentially violating federal tax law.

Two independent contractors who were part of Arizona Department of Corrections execution teams in 2022 were each given cash payments totaling $60,000 for their roles in putting three men to death, according to an investigation conducted by retired U.S. Magistrate Judge David Duncan.

However, the Arizona Department of Administration, which handles payroll and human resources for the state, was unable to find any independent contractor tax records related to the 2022 executions. The department searched for the documents in response to a request from The Arizona Republic under Arizona's public records law.

Spokesperson Tim Tait said the Department of Administration would generally have copies of IRS 1099 forms if they existed. “We don’t have anything on file related to this request, however,” he said in a statement.

The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry declined repeated requests for comment on records related to the cash payments, and a spokesperson for the Governor's Office did not respond to an inquiry about them.

The execution team struggled to insert the intravenous needles that deliver lethal drugs during each of the three executions in 2022. That prompted Gov. Katie Hobbs to order a moratorium on the death penalty when she took office in 2023 while Duncan conducted a review of the state's death penalty system.

During the course of his review, Duncan interviewed the medical director responsible for the three executions carried out in 2022. The medical director told Duncan that he and a paramedic were both paid $20,000 cash for each execution. The medical director said he was not issued a 1099 tax record for these payments, Duncan said.

In response to that interview, Duncan asked the Corrections Department to provide records showing that it had issued tax documents for the payments, but the department never responded.

A week after his inquiry, Hobbs fired Duncan, saying she no longer had confidence in his review.

Duncan said he believed his dismissal may have been related to his tax records inquiry.

Duncan said he asked for the tax records because Arizona has in the past tried to deceive regulators in order to execute people by lethal injection.

"Here was another example where, in the pursuit of lethal injection, I wondered if they were willing to disregard the federal law requiring employers to send a 1099," Duncan said. "We have to be the law enforcer, not the lawbreaker."

Arizona law protects the identity of “executioners and other persons who participate or perform ancillary functions in an execution,” but it does not supersede federal tax requirements.

States are required by federal law to issue tax forms called 1099s to contractors it pays and to the IRS, said Adam Chodorow, a professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

“To make sure that independent contractors accurately report their income, the person or entity who pays them issues a 1099, that tells them how much they got paid and lets the government know as well,” he said.

Chodorow said 1099s should be issued for payments above $600.

“Maybe the government didn't want people to know that these people had been retained and paid," Chodorow said. "And if that's the case, not issuing a 1099 would help conceal that.”

Source: azcentral.com, J. Jenkins, January 22, 2025

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