PHOENIX — Arizona's attorney general filed court paperwork Friday to move forward with the execution of murderer Aaron Brian Gunches.
It comes after a two-year pause in Arizona executions due to concerns that the Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry had botched the process during prior lethal injections.
Gunches is on death row for the 2002 murder of Ted Price.
This week, ABC15 spoke exclusively with the victim's sisters, who want to see the sentence carried out.
Friday, Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a court motion seeking a warrant for the execution of Gunches, who pleaded guilty in 2007.
The court had issued a death warrant for Gunches nearly two years ago, but the sentence wasn’t carried out because Gov. Katie Hobbs paused executions in order to review the state’s death penalty protocol.
In November, Hobbs dismissed the retired federal magistrate she had appointed to conduct the review. Instead, she accepted a report by the state prison director who outlined new procedures for the execution process.
In Friday’s filing, prosecutors said the state is prepared to carry out the execution and that Gunches has waived a state post-conviction review of his case and failed to start a federal constitutional review.
Gunches, who is representing himself, has already asked the court to speed up that process and issue the warrant. The death row inmate, in a hand-written note, even noted a possible execution date of February 14.
