Arizona Supreme Court issues execution warrant for prisoner convicted in 1984 murder
May 3, 2022, 4:48 PM | Updated: 4:57 pm
Frank Atwood (Booking Photo)
(Booking Photo)
PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an execution warrant for Frank Atwood, who was convicted in the 1984 death of 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson.
Atwood’s execution is scheduled for June 8.
The warrant marks the second the state’s high court has issued since 2014, when executions were put on hold after death row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona filed a lawsuit over the execution of Joseph Wood.
Wood’s attorney said the death was botched after the man was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours on July 23, 2014.
In early April, Arizona resumed execution warrants when one was issued for Clarence Dixon.
Dixon was sentenced to death for the 1978 killing of Deana Bowdoin, a 21-year-old Arizona State University student.
He was convicted for the crime in 2008 after advances in DNA technology identified him as a suspect. He was already serving a life sentence for other crimes.
Both Atwood and Dixon could choose from either lethal injection or gas since the crimes occurred before 1992.
Dixon’s execution is scheduled for May 11.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has previously said there are more than 100 Arizona inmates are on death row, and 20 of those have exhausted all appeals.
Many of the crimes of those on death row go back decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
