An Arizona prisoner is asking to be executed sooner than the state wants
PHOENIX — An Arizona death row inmate asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities had intended. He insisted, as he has in the past, that his death sentence be carried out.
Execution of Aaron Brian Gunches would mean a resumption of Arizona’s use of the death penalty after a two-year hiatus during which it revised its procedures.
In a handwritten brief this week, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February because of his 2002 murder conviction of Ted Price.
Gunches, who is not a lawyer but is representing himself, said his death sentence was “long overdue” and that the state was reluctant to ask the court for a legal briefing schedule ahead of the execution.
Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office, which is seeking Gunches’ execution, said a briefing schedule is needed to ensure corrections officials can meet execution requirements, such as testing for the pentobarbital that will be used for his lethal injection.
Two years ago, Gunches asked the Arizona Supreme Court to issue his execution order, saying justice could be served and closure for the victim’s families.
Gunches would be put to death in April 2023. But Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office said the state was unwilling to enforce the death penalty because it lacked staff with the expertise to carry out executions.
Hobbs, a Democrat, had pledged not to carry out executions until there is confidence the state can do so without breaking any laws. The review Hobbs ordered effectively ended in November when she was fired the retired federal magistrate judge she had appointed to lead the review.
Gunches pleaded guilty to a charge of killing Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
Arizona, which has 111 death row inmates, is the last carried out three executions in 2022 after a hiatus of almost eight years due to criticism that an execution in 2014 was botched and due to problems in obtaining drugs for execution.
Since then, the state has been criticized for taking too long insert an IV for a lethal injection into a condemned prisoner.