Death row prisoner asks Arizona for second time to be executed sooner than the state wants
An Arizona death row inmate is asking the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution before authorities schedule it, as they have in the past, pushing for his execution.
Aaron Brian Gunches’ execution will mark Arizona uses the death penalty It follows a two-year moratorium to review its procedures.
In a handwritten court document filed this week, Gunchis asked the state Supreme Court to put him to death in mid-February for his murder conviction in the 2002 slaying of Ted Price. He filed a similar motion in November 2022, asking the court to issue a death warrant against him, saying he hoped that justice would be “lawfully served and closure given to the families of the victims.”
He withdrew that January 2023 motionCiting three recent executions, he said they were “carried out in a manner that amounted to torture.”
Gonchis, who is not a lawyer but represents himself, said in his latest filing that his death sentence is “long overdue” and that the state has been dragging its feet in asking the court for a timeline for legal briefings before the execution. .
Attorney General Chris Meyers’ office, which is seeking Gunches’ execution, said a briefing schedule is needed to ensure corrections officials can meet execution requirements, such as testing of pentobarbital, which is used in lethal injections.
Gonchis was scheduled to be executed in April 2023. But Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office said the state is not prepared to carry out executions because of a lack of staff with the expertise to carry out executions.
Hobbs, a Democrat, has pledged not to carry out any executions unless he is confident the state can do so without violating any laws. The review ordered by Hobbs effectively ended in November, when she fired the retired federal magistrate judge she appointed to oversee it.
Gunchis pleaded guilty to murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Price, her ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
Arizona, which has 111 people on death row, last carried out three executions in 2022 after a nearly eight-year hiatus amid criticism of a botched execution in 2014 and difficulties in obtaining execution drugs.
Since then, the state has been criticized for taking too long to administer IVs to death row inmates.
