Arizona Supreme Court could issue warrant of execution for death row inmate in 2 months

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court said Wednesday that a warrant of execution for death row inmate Murray Hooper could be issued in two months.

A briefing schedule issued by the state’s high court shows the state’s motion for an execution warrant must be filed by the end of the week. Hooper’s lawyers will then be able to respond.

If the motion is granted when the court considers it on Oct. 12, Chief Justice Robert Brutinel’s order says the court anticipates the warrant will be issued that day.

The 76-year-old Hooper could be the third inmate put to death this year after Arizona recently resumed carrying out executions.

Hooper and two co-defendants were sentenced to death for the New Year’s Eve 1980 murders of a Phoenix man and his mother-in-law during a home robbery.

The other two men died before their sentences could be carried out.

The state hadn’t executed anyone for nearly eight years before Clarence Dixon died by lethal injection on May 11 for the 1978 murder of a 21-year-old Arizona State University student.

Frank Atwood was executed June 8 at the state prison in Florence for the 1984 killing of an 8-year-old Tucson girl.

The Attorney General’s Office said there are 111 inmates on Arizona’s death row and 22 have exhausted their appeals.