Arizona files motion for warrant of execution for death row inmate

PHOENIX – Arizona’s top legal officers filed a motion Friday with the state high court for a warrant of execution of death row inmate Murray Hooper.

The Arizona Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the motion Oct. 12, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office said in a press release. The motion had to be filed by the end of this week.

The court said Wednesday it expected to issue the warrant the same day of the schedule briefing.

If granted, it would be the third execution warrant issued in the state this year.

Hooper, 76, was sentenced to death in 1983. He and two others were convicted of the 1980 murders of Patrick Redmond and his mother-in-law Helen Phelps during a home robbery in Phoenix.

William Bracy and Edward McCall died before their sentences could be carried out.

“It is my solemn obligation to ensure that court-ordered capital sentences are carried out,” state Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a press release.

Arizona 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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