6 Feb 20th-Feb 26th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | A Time to Kill Arizona Supreme Court says state can execute Aaron Gunches. BY MORGAN FISCHER C an Arizona legally kill its first death row prisoner in more than two years? Yes, according to an Arizona Supreme Court ruling released Feb. 11. In a unanimous decision, the court granted a death warrant for prisoner Aaron Gunches, who was convicted of a 2002 murder. The court’s decision sets up the longtime death row inmate to be killed by lethal injection on March 19. The execution will be carried out at the central unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence by masked, unidenti- fied executioners through “intravenous injection” of a substance “in a quantity sufficient to cause death,” according to the warrant. By approving Gunches’ execution, the court sidestepped the thorny question of whether Arizona’s lethal injection processes are humane, an issue the court determined was “not properly before us.” Due to the court’s “limited role at this stage of the proceedings,” the justices could only consider whether the state had met all the required criteria to obtain an execution warrant. Experts filed amicus briefs arguing that Arizona’s execution methods are inhu- mane. Chief Justice Ann Timmer wrote in the court’s decision that though those experts “critique the method by which the State intends to carry out Gunches’ execu- tion, seeking to litigate in this proceeding whether the State can lawfully carry out an execution by lethal injection at this time,” the court’s decision to grant a death warrant “is not the appropriate forum for any such challenge.” Timmer noted that Gunches himself had not brought the issue of inhumane executions before the court, nor did he “oppose the issuance of a warrant of execution.” Even if Gunches had ques- tioned the state’s execution methods, Timmer wrote, “it would not affect our statutory duty to issue a warrant of execution.” Three justices — James Beene, Bill Montgomery and Vice Chief Justice John Lopez — recused themselves from the case and haven’t participated in any rulings related to Gunches. Two appellate court justices have sat in on the case in their stead. In 2007, Gunches was convicted of the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his then-girl- friend’s ex-husband. His execution is controversial because he happened to be next in line when Arizona halted execu- tions after a series of botched lethal injec- tions. Gov. Katie Hobbs recently lifted that pause on executions despite her dismissal of the retired judge she hired to investigate Arizona’s execution practices. Execution issues Arizona has had a complicated history with executions. The state has repeatedly failed to execute death row inmates humanely and without screwups. After the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, the state paused executions for eight years. Then, during the final months of Republican Mark Brnovich’s term as state attorney general in 2022, the state resumed executions and killed three more prisoners. Those executions were a mess. The state’s execution team struggled to insert IVs for lethal injections for all three pris- oners. One, Murray Hooper, even turned to the viewing gallery and asked, “Can you believe this?” When Hobbs and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes took office in 2023, Hobbs ordered a pause on executions while the state examined what had been going wrong. Hobbs appointed retired federal judge David Duncan to conduct a review of Arizona’s execution practices and said executions wouldn’t resume until that review was complete. Hobbs reneged on that promise late last year. She fired Duncan before he completed the review, claiming he over- stepped his mandate. Duncan suggested that lethal injection was unavoidably inhu- mane, proposing instead using a firing squad — which is against the law in Arizona — and probing payments to execu- tion staff. In lieu of Duncan’s full report, Hobbs decided an internal review by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry was sufficient. By the end of 2024, Arizona’s moratorium on capital punishment was over. The controversy lingers. As Arizona sought a death warrant for Gunches from the Arizona Supreme Court, experts raised questions about the efficacy of the state’s lethal injection drugs and whether the state could execute prisoners without submitting them to excruciating pain. For his part, Gunches has continuously asked the state to just get it over with. Earlier this year, he petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to schedule his execution for Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day. The court rejected his request. Now with the date of Gunches’ execu- tion set for March 19, the state may name the next death row inmate on deck for execution. Currently 111 people are on Arizona’s death row, 25 of whom have exhausted all appeals. The state does not specify the order in which death row inmates are executed. Aaron Gunches faces the death penalty for the 2002 murder of Ted Price. (Arizona Department of Corrections) Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Timmer authored the unanimous opinion granting a death warrant for the state to kill prisoner Aaron Gunches. (Gage Skidmore/ Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0) | NEWS | | NEWS |
