Arizona death-row inmate loses last appeal

PHOENIX – A death-row inmate set to be executed in Arizona on Wednesday
has lost his last appeal, clearing the way for the lethal injection to proceed.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a request from Samuel Villegas
Lopez to delay his execution to consider arguments that his trial attorneys were
incompetent.

Now nothing stands in the way of Lopez’s 10 a.m. execution at the state prison
in Florence for the Oct. 29, 1986, brutal rape and murder of a 59-year-old
Phoenix woman.

If the execution proceeds, he will be the fourth inmate to be executed in
Arizona this year.

For the first time in state history, witnesses will be able to view the actual
injection before the lethal drugs are administered. Before, inmates were
injected behind closed doors before witnesses were allowed to come in as the
fatal dose was given.

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