Arizona Supreme Court grants request to carry out state’s 1st execution since 2022
The Arizona Supreme Court granted a request to carry out the state's first execution since 2022, authorities announced on Tuesday.
PHOENIX —The Arizona Supreme Court granted a request to carry out the state’s first execution since 2022, authorities announced on Tuesday.
Convicted killer Aaron Gunches will receive a lethal injection on March 19.
Gunches was convicted in 2007 for the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Ted Price. Gunches originally pleaded guilty in 2004 to murdering Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband. He was sentenced to death in 2008 and again in 2013 after the Arizona Supreme Court found an error in the first sentencing proceeding.
Under state law, executions must be carried out 35 days after a warrant is issued.
Arizona hasn’t carried out a death sentence since executing three death row inmates in 2022. Those executions ended a nearly eight-year hiatus following a 2014 execution. The state later had difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.
On Dec. 6, Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a motion to establish a briefing schedule in the long-running death penalty case.
An earlier execution warrant for Gunches was issued in March 2023, but Gov. Katie Hobbs refused to carry it out and won a legal battle to put it on hold.
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Comments
7 Comments
18 years since his convicton and sentencing is 17 too many years for appeals. Give them a year to try to identify and appeal issues in their criminal trial, then that's it. If their conviction isn't overturned on that appeal, too bad, so sad, Sayonara.
Stop the endless rounds of appeal after appeal after appeal. You get one chance to appeal -- stuff all your supposed grounds for appeal into that one....no more separate appeals 1-3 years apart for each harebrained idea their lawyer comes up with.
About time!! A .22 caliber bullet would be easier and cheaper to the job.
Adios Aaron.