Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said the state does not intend to proceed with an execution scheduled in April for death row prisoner Aaron Gunches, she announced in a statement Friday.
The Arizona Supreme Court granted a warrant of execution for Gunches on Thursday, despite Gunches and the Arizona attorney general both asking to withdraw their request for the warrant.
“The Court’s decision order and warrant make clear, however, that the warrant authorizes an execution and does not require it,” Hobbs said. “This is consistent with the law and separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches on this most serious exercise of the power of the State.”
Gunches was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, a former longtime boyfriend of Gunches’ girlfriend. Gunches kidnapped and shot Price multiple times.
Hobbs recently appointed retired Magistrate Judge David Duncan to review the execution process in Arizona, as outlined in her executive order issued in January to establish a Death Penalty Independent Review commissioner.
“Under my Administration, an execution will not occur until the people of Arizona can have confidence that the State is not violating the law in carrying out the gravest of penalties,” Hobbs said.
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Hobbs said bringing the Department of Corrections up to adequate staffing levels and getting it prepared to carry out an execution would take more time.
“My hope is, in that time, the Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner will also be able to complete his analysis and recommendations, which ADCRR will work to implement,” Hobbs said.
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Arizona has 110 prisoners on death row. The state carried out three executions last year, after a nearly eight-year hiatus following criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining execution drugs.
Since resuming executions, the state has been criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a prisoner’s body in early May and for denying the request from the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, to serve as a media witness for the last three executions.
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Contributing: The Associated Press.
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