PHOENIX — Executions are set to resume in Arizona after a two-year hiatus.
The Arizona Attorney General announced she is seeking the death warrant for convicted murderer Aaron Brian Gunches in the next few weeks.
The last execution in Arizona happened in November 2022, 76-year-old Murray Hooper died by lethal injection for the murders of two people in Phoenix.
Now, after two years of reviewing and improving Arizona’s death penalty procedures, the state says it can resume the lethal practice.
“Over the past five to six years, there have been reports of botched executions, and human rights groups have called upon the government to review all the steps,” said Josh Kolsrud, a Phoenix defense attorney and legal expert.
The governor’s office says the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry has “made critical improvements to help ensure executions carried out by the State meet legal and constitutional standards."
Kris Mayes, the state attorney general, previously said she would resume executions by early next year.
On Tuesday, Mayes announced she would ask the Arizona Supreme Court for an execution warrant in the coming weeks for Gunches, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Ted Price in 2002.
Legal experts say more execution warrants could be issued.
“Right now, there is a list of 25 different defendants that have exhausted their appellate remedies and are on death row waiting execution,” said Kolsrud.
Mayes said in a statement: “I am confident that executions can now proceed in compliance with state and federal law.”
She also said she remains committed to seeking justice for victims of violent crime and their loved ones, adding she has spoken with Price’s family and expressed her deepest condolences “for the unimaginable pain they have endured since his murder.”
“With a lot of these families, they want closure. And part of the closure is having the justice that the perpetrator who killed their loved one is going to have… that there’s going to be some type of retribution for his actions,” said Kolsrud.
