PHOENIX — Executions have been put on hold multiple times in Arizona's history.
As the state prepares for its first execution since 2022, ABC15 takes a look back at the history of executions and why Arizona has had moratoriums on the death penalty.
From 2014 to 2025:
- 2014 - Arizona Supreme Court judge issues a stay of executions in Arizona after the botched execution of Joseph Wood. The process took nearly two hours and fifteen injections. At the time, media witnesses said Wood gasped for air for more than an hour. A review by the Arizona Attorney General would find the execution was not botched and said Wood did not suffer.
- 2016 - Officials in Arizona declare the state did not have the drugs necessary to carry out an execution and say they are unable to obtain them.
- April 2022 - The Arizona State Supreme Court issues first execution warrant in 8 years for murder, sex assault convict Clarence Dixon.
- May 11, 2022 - The state's first execution since Joseph Wood's. Clarence Dixon who was convicted of killing an ASU student in the 1970's died by lethal injection. The process took nearly two hours and critics argue it was another botched execution.
- June 8, 2022 - Frank Atwood died by lethal injection. Atwood was convicted in the 1984 murder of an 8-year-old girl.
- Nov. 16, 2022 - Arizona executes Murray Hooper by lethal injection for the 1980 killings of William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps.
- Jan. 20, 2023 - Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announces a pause on all executions ordering a complete review of all death penalty procedures.
- November 2024 - Governor Hobbs dismisses David Duncan, the retired federal magistrate judge she appointed to complete the review effectively ending it.
- November 2024 - Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announces she is seeking the death warrant for convicted murderer Aaron Gunches.
- March 2025 - Aaron Gunches is scheduled to die by lethal injection on March 19 in what would be Arizona’s first use of the death penalty in over two years.
A look at executions before 2014, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections:
- 1910-1931: 28 people were executed by hanging.
- Dec. 8, 1916: Initiative measure goes into effect eliminating the death penalty as punishment for convictions of first-degree murder.
- Dec. 5, 1918: Death penalty restored.
- 1934-1999: 37 people were executed by lethal gas.
- April 1962-April 1992: The death penalty was inactive in Arizona.
- 1972: The United States Supreme Court held that the death penalty as administered violated the United States Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
- 1973: Arizona Legislature sets forth a new procedure for death penalty cases. A "new statute provided for a separate sentencing hearing to be held before the trial court, rather than a jury, and enumerated six aggravating circumstances that could be considered in deciding whether to impose a death sentence."
- 1978: Arizona Statute regarding executions was ruled unconstitutional and all executions were stayed.
- 1979: Arizona Legislature revised Arizona's Death Penalty Statute and sentences again became effective on May 1.
- November 1992: Arizona voters approved execution by lethal injection.
- 1993-2013: Lethal injections have been used to carry out the executions of 34 people.
2002-2005: The United States Supreme Court publishes four decisions impacting executions of mentally incompetent criminals, a jury’s role in the process, and the death penalty for offenders under the age of 18.
