| NEWS | Ditchers from p 9 to debate her opponent in the District 7 State Senate race, Democrat Kyle Nitschke, on September 21. Alt-right Republican Christian Lamar is eyeing the District 2 House seat. He was the only one of five candidates in the district who refused to participate in a debate on October 12. In District 16, not a single Republican candidate bothered to show up to an August 24 debate. Rob Hudelson, State Representative Teresa Martinez, and State Senator Thomas Shope ducked out, leaving only Democrats Taylor Kirby, running for a Senate seat, and Keith Seaman, running for a House seat, to participate. “I was so pleased to participate in the LD16 Clean Elections Candidate debate,” Seaman said. “I will always show up for LD16.” None of the 11 candidates running in Districts 10, 14, and 28 accepted invitations to debate. QAnon promoters Liz Harris, a local real estate agent turned election “fraud” Last One from p 9 Only Marilyn survived. Then, Bracy and Hooper returned to Chicago. The prosecution’s case rested largely on Marilyn Redmond’s testimony, as well as that of two women who Hooper and Bracy spent time with in Phoenix. One of the women tipped off the police about the men’s involvement. Attorneys for Hooper questioned the credi- bility of those witnesses and attempted to establish that Hooper and Bracy had, in fact, been in Chicago at the time of the murders. Hooper and Bracy were convicted and sentenced to death. McCall was also convicted in a separate trial. Cruz, after a series of mistrials and reversed conviction, was found not guilty in his fifth trial. He later disappeared in Illinois. Now, Hooper is the last one remaining. Forty Years On Death Row Brnovich announced in July that his office would seek a warrant for Hooper’s execution. “Our state recognizes that those who commit the most heinous crimes deserve the ultimate punishment,” he said. Attorneys for Hooper asked Brutinel to delay the proceedings, given that the case was recently transferred to a new attorney. But Brnovich’s office pushed back: “Hooper has had nearly 40 years to challenge his convictions and sentences and has been eligible for a warrant of execution for almost five months,” attorneys for the state wrote. “The State and Hooper’s victims have waited decades while Hooper pursued his right to appeal his convictions and sentences for the horrific crimes he committed.” Brutinel sided with the state. On October 12, a conference will be held on whether the court investigator who conducted a flawed canvass of the presidential election, and Mary Ann Mendoza, an inveterate anti- semite who was booted from the Republican National Convention in 2020, have also dodged debate commitments in their bids for the Arizona Legislature. On the trend of skipping out on debates,Robin Logsdon, a strategist with the Arizona Democratic Caucus, told New Times that he expected the trend to continue, thanks in part to the Republican National Committee’s letter in January. “I’m confident we’ll see more of that,” he said. All debates are scheduled to air on Arizona PBS’s Arizona Horizon and stream on the Citizens Clean Elections Commission’s YouTube channel. Other scheduled debates include: • Arizona Corporation Commission, September 12 at 5 p.m. • Superintendent of Public Instruction, September 14 at 6 p.m. • Secretary of State, September 22 at 5 p.m. Trump-backed conspiracy theorist Mark Finchem will face Democrat Adrian Fontes. will issue the warrant. If it is issued, an execu- tion date would be set for 35 days later, or November 16. The attorney general’s office told Phoenix New Times that it would comment on the case once a formal motion for the execution warrant is filed. Hooper’s defense counsel, Kelly Culshaw, assistant federal public defender, declined to comment. The four decades that Hooper has spent on death row is hardly unusual. Death row pris- oners have the right to appellate proceedings that can span decades. Hooper only completed this process five months ago, despite his 40 years on Arizona’s death row. Of the 111 people on death row in the state, just 22 of them have, like Hooper, exhausted their appeals. On average, those 22 people have spent 30 years on death row. The 1980 murders that Hooper was convicted of are some of the oldest crimes in Arizona for which the perpetrator is still awaiting the death penalty. The only Arizona capital case that dates back further is that of Joe Clarence Smith, one of the longest serving death row prisoners in the country. He was convicted of murdering two young women in 1975. Hooper’s execution would be the third since Arizona resumed executions this spring. Dixon was executed in May and Atwood in June. Those executions brought renewed scru- tiny to the department’s protocols, including its resistance to allowing certain publications to witness executions and its difficulties inserting IVs to administer pentobarbital, the lethal chemical agent. In 2014, the botched execution of Joseph Wood triggered legal challenges that halted executions in Arizona for years. 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 8TH–SEPT 14TH, 2022
