Arizona’s next execution set

The state is set to conduct its first execution in two years next month.

In an order late Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court said neither Attorney General Kris Mayes nor Aaron Gunches raised any legal issues to preclude his being put to death on March 19.

The justices acknowledged that it did get legal briefs by outside parties saying that it would be improper for the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry to go ahead with the execution using its supply of pentobarbital. Arguments included that the drug causes the inmate’s lungs to fill with fluid, causing a painful death by drowning.

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said, however, the fact that none of that was addressed by either Mayes or Gunches precludes the court from considering it.

But Timmer said it wouldn’t have changed anything if they had.

“It would not affect our statutory duty to issue a warrant of execution in this matter,” she wrote. Timmer said that once the state sought a warrant to execute Gunches, the only issue was whether the legal requirements were satisfied. And at that point, she said, the court must issue the warrant.

The last three inmates executed by the state by lethal injection were in 2022.

There were reports that in some cases there was evidence that problems by prison staffers in putting in the intravenous lines resulted in pain and bleeding.

In January, 2023, shortly after taking office, Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed retired federal magistrate David Duncan as a special “death penalty commissioner” to study how the state is handling the practice. The governor said there had been a series of “botched executions” in Arizona, all conducted using lethal injection.

At the same time, Mayes stopped seeking warrants of execution, saying she wanted to wait for the outcome of that inquiry.

There never was a final report.

Hobbs fired Duncan last year after he issued a preliminary report raising questions about whether it was possible to humanely put someone to death in that manner. He said if the state was going to continue with executions the most humane might be use of a firing squad.

The governor simultaneously concluded that she was confident that a review of the execution process conducted by Ryan Thornell, her choice to head the prison system, shows the state is now again ready to resume executions without some of the prior problems.

Gunches pleaded guilty to first degree murder and kidnapping in the 2002 death of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

He waived his right to post-conviction review and, in November 2022, filed a motion on his own behalf seeking an execution warrant. That was joined the following month by then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

But by that time Brnovich was set to leave office.

Meanwhile, the warrant, which has a fixed time limit, expired before the execution was carried out. And by that time Mayes was not seeking new ones while awaiting Duncan’s study.

Gunches is one of 111 inmates on death row. Of that, 25, including Gunches, have either exhausted or waived all appeals.

Source: azcapitoltimes.com, Howard Fischer, February 11, 2025

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