Arizona | Death Row Inmate Challenges Execution Warrant, Citing 2025 Cyberattack and Protocol Failures

Leroy Dean McGill was sentenced to death for a 2002 gasoline attack in North Phoenix against a couple, Charles Perez and Nova Banta.

PHOENIX — Attorneys for Arizona death row inmate Leroy Dean McGill have formally challenged the state’s attempt to secure an execution warrant, citing a catastrophic 2025 cyberattack and a long history of troubled lethal injection protocols.

The challenge comes as Arizona seeks to resume capital punishment following a year-long hiatus. If the Arizona Supreme Court grants the state’s request, McGill would become the first person executed in the state since 2024.

Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a motion earlier this month requesting a briefing schedule for a warrant of execution. Under the proposed timeline, McGill could face a tentative execution date as early as May 20, 2026.

The Crime

McGill, 58, was convicted for a 2002 attack in North Phoenix against Charles Perez and Nova Banta. Prosecutors said McGill doused the couple with a gasoline-and-soap mixture before setting them on fire. Perez died from his injuries; Banta survived with permanent, life-altering scarring.

The attack was rooted in a personal vendetta involving a stolen shotgun and a series of grievances that spiraled into extreme violence. According to court records, the victims accused McGill and his girlfriend of stealing a shotgun from a mutual friend’s apartment. The accusation led to McGill’s eviction, effectively leaving him homeless.

Enraged by the loss of his housing, McGill sought retribution. On the night of the attack, McGill warned a neighbor to remove his family from the duplex because he intended to "teach Perez and Yates a lesson."

Trial testimony revealed a high level of premeditation designed to inflict maximum pain. McGill mixed gasoline with Styrofoam to create a thickened, napalm-like gel. The substance was designed to stick to the victims' skin and burn at a higher temperature, making the flames nearly impossible to extinguish.

McGill has spent more than 20 years on death row. His appeals have focused on a traumatic childhood, mental health issues, and an "ex post facto" claim regarding the application of Arizona’s death penalty statutes.

Massive Cyberattack

In a response filed with the state’s high court, the Arizona Federal Public Defender’s Office argued that moving forward with an execution date now would violate McGill’s due process rights.

The defense highlighted a spring 2025 cyberattack that crippled the office’s internal servers. Attorneys claim the breach resulted in the loss or corruption of decades of case files, medical records, and investigative notes essential for preparing a clemency petition.

"To proceed with an execution when the defense is literally rebuilding the record of a 20-year-old case is a move toward a procedural failure, not justice," defense experts noted in the filing.

Lingering Protocol Concerns

The challenge also leans heavily on Arizona's history with lethal injection. McGill’s team has raised questions about the state's ability to carry out executions humanely, pointing to a legacy of "botched" procedures and questionable drug procurement.

The state has faced repeated scrutiny for its methods. In 2011 and 2015, Arizona attempted to illegally import sodium thiopental from a non-FDA-approved supplier in Great Britain and a middleman in India. Those shipments were seized by the DEA and federal customs agents.

Records show the state has spent as much as $1.5 million on a single batch of pentobarbital, often sourced from undisclosed compounding pharmacies. In several instances, these high-priced drugs expired before they could be used due to legal stays.

The defense also cited the 2014 execution of Joseph Wood, who gasped for nearly two hours after being injected 15 times, and 2022 cases where execution teams struggled for up to an hour to find suitable veins in inmates Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood.

The Road Ahead

The legal battle is moving on a compressed timeline.

Following McGill’s formal response on March 20, the state issued a reply on March 24, maintaining that McGill has exhausted his standard appeals and that the victims’ families have waited over two decades for justice.

The Arizona Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a conference on the matter March 26, 2026. If the court rules in favor of the state, a warrant will be issued immediately, triggering a 35-day countdown to the execution.

Source: DPN, News outlets, Staff, AI, March 25, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

Comments

Florida: The Daily Routine of Death Row Inmates

The breakfast carts rattle through the concrete prison at about 5:30 am and as they approach Death Row the first sounds of morning repeat the last sounds of night - remote controlled locks clanging open and clunking closed, electric gates whirring, heavy metal doors crashing shut, voices wailing, klaxons blaring. A maximum security prison has no soft or delicate sounds. At the end of each corridor of death row cells a guard opens a heavy door of steel bars and a prison trusty pushes a breakfast cart inside. The door closes behind him and when it locks a second door opens and admits the trusty to the wing. He steers his cart along the wing stopping at each cell to pass a tray of powdered eggs and lukewarm grits through a small slot on the bars. Food is prepared by prison staff and transported in insulated carts to the cells. The food carts are full of cockroaches, the food is often undercooked or just rotten and is served on Styrofoam plates with a plastic "spork" - fork/spoon...

Prosecutors may pursue death penalty in Alex Murdaugh retrial, South Carolina AG says

Alan Wilson said prosecutors are “back to square one” and all legal options are on the table. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Friday that his office may pursue the death penalty when it retries Alex Murdaugh in the 2021 murder of his son and wife. “In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, we’re back to square one on this case, and that means all our legal options are on the table, including the death penalty,” Wilson said. The state’s high court reversed Murdaugh’s double murder conviction in an opinion published Wednesday that accused a former court clerk of “egregious” jury interference.

South Korea ferry disaster: Surviving passengers of Sewol tragedy give evidence in court

Surviving passengers of a South Korean ferry which sunk in April, killing 304 people, are due to give evidence in the trial of its captain and 14 crew members. Students from the Danwon High School in Ansan, 18 miles south of Seoul, will testify with other passengers in a smaller court nearer to their home, rather than the one where the defendants are being seen in Gwangju, in the south of the country. The Sewol ferry set sail on 16 April with 476 passengers and crew on board - more than 300 of which were schoolchildren. They were enroute from the mainland to the island resort of Jeju as part of a school trip, when nearing the end of the journey, the vessel, which was overloaded, also made a sharp turn to the right causing it to capsize. Captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, was caught on rescue footage being one of the first to leave the ship, while many passengers, obeying orders, remained in the cabins. It is thought a delayed evacuation order from the captain did n...

Former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip goes free on $500k bond

Richard Glossip was released from jail Thursday, May 14, on a $500,000 bond, a major victory for the former death row inmate who has come so close to execution that he has had three last meals. Glossip, 63, is awaiting his third trial in his 1997 murder-for-hire case. He walked out the front door of the Oklahoma County jail, holding hands with his wife, Lea Glossip, as a stiff Oklahoma breeze whipped his hair. "I'm just thankful for my wife and my attorneys," he told reporters. "I'm just happy." His release came hours after Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai set bail in a 13-page order that pointed to issues with the key witness against him.

Arizona executes Leroy McGill

Arizona executes inmate who set couple on fire in 'horrific attack' Arizona has executed Leroy McGill for setting 21-year-old Charles Perez and his 24-year-old girlfriend on fire. Perez died the next day and Perez survived with severe burn injuries. Arizona has executed a death row inmate for setting 2 people on fire more than 20 years ago, killing 1 of them and changing the other's life forever. The state executed Leroy McGill, 63, by lethal injection on Wednesday, May 20, for the 2002 murder of 21-year-old Charles Perez. McGill set Perez and his girlfriend on fire after they accused him of theft, court records say. Perez died of his injuries the next day while his girlfriend survived with severe burns.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Texas executes Edward Busby Jr.

Texas puts man to death for a retired professor's killing in its 600th execution since 1982 A man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982, put to death Thursday evening for the killing of a retired 77-year-old college professor. Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. local time following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after a divided Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution followed a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the nation’s high court lifted a stay hours earlier.

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog