An Arizona death row inmate he asked the state Supreme Court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than officials had planned.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, had previously asked the state to execute him because of his conviction for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, to which he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Grunches’ execution would be the first use of the death penalty in Arizona after a two-year hiatus to review execution procedures.
In a handwritten filing in court this week, Gunches, who is not a lawyer but represents himself, called state high court to schedule his execution for mid-February.
Aaron Brian Gunches was convicted of murdering Ted Price in 2002 in Maricopa County, Arizona. (Arizona Department of Prisons, Rehabilitation and Reentry via AP)
He said his death sentence was “long overdue” and the state was delaying the process by asking the court to schedule legal information before the execution.
The office of Democratic state attorney Kris Mayes, which is conducting Gunches’ execution, said a briefing schedule must be set up to ensure prison officials meet execution requirements, including testing for the pentobarbital that will be used in his lethal injection.
Two years ago, Gunches urged the state Supreme Court to issue a warrant for his execution on the grounds that justice could be served and the victim’s family could find closure.
Alabama’s lethal injection chamber is shown on October 7, 2002 at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. (AP)
Gunches’ execution was scheduled for April 2023 before Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office said the state was not ready to carry out the death penalty because it lacked staff with the expertise to carry out executions.
Hobbs promised not to carry out any death sentences until there was confidence that the state could do so without breaking the law. Hobbs ordered the review, which effectively ended in November when she fired the retired federal judge she appointed to lead the review.
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FILE: Cart in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Arizona has 111 inmates on death row, but they were the last to be executed death penalty in 2022, when three prisoners were sentenced to death, after a nearly eight-year hiatus caused by criticism that the execution in 2014 was unsuccessfully carried out and due to difficulties in obtaining the lethal injection drug.
The state has since faced criticism for taking too long to insert an IV for a lethal injection into a death row inmate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
