Arizona Supreme Court upholds death penalty for convicted murderer Edward McCauley

The Arizona Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence for a Glendale man who murdered his estranged wife in 2014.

Edward Littleton McCauley asked the court to overturn his conviction and sentence, arguing that his rights were violated by prosecutorial errors and misconduct.

The Supreme Court agreed with McCauley that errors were made during the jury selection process, but the justices determined the issues were not prejudicial against the defendant.

A jury found McCauley guilty of first-degree murder in December 2019. A month later, he was sentenced to death due to the heinous nature of the crime.

Why did an Arizona jury sentence Edward McCauley to death

McCauley waited outside 45-year-old Dawn McCauley’s home and fired eight shots into her vehicle as she was leaving for work the night of Nov. 24, 2014.

Immediately afterward, he sent profanity-laced text messages to members of the victim’s family, according to prosecutors.

He was located and arrested at a West Valley restaurant the day after the murder.

McCauley is one of 109 inmates on Arizona’s death row. The state is planning to carry out its first death sentence of 2026 next week. Leroy Dean McGill is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for burning a man to death in 2002.

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