A Death row inmate from Arizona has asked the state Supreme Court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than officials had planned.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, had previously pushed for the state to carry out his execution because of his conviction for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, to which he had pleaded guilty. He will be put to death by lethal injection.
Grunches’ execution would be the first time Arizona has used the death penalty since a two-year pause to overhaul execution procedures.
In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches, who is not a lawyer but is representing himself, urged the court the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution in mid-February.
Aaron Brian Gunches was convicted of murder in the 2002 killing of Ted Price in Maricopa County, Arizona. (Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry via AP)
He said his death sentence was “long overdue” and that the state is prolonging the trial by asking the court for a legal briefing schedule ahead of the execution.
Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office, which is pursuing Gunches’ execution, said a briefing schedule should be set up to ensure corrections officials comply with execution requirements, including testing for the pentobarbital that will be used in his fatal injection.
Two years ago, Gunches called on the state Supreme Court to issue his execution order on the basis that justice could be served and the victim’s family would have closure.
Alabama’s lethal injection chamber is shown on October 7, 2002 at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. (AP)
Gunches’ execution was scheduled for April 2023, before Democrat Katie Hobbs’ office said the state was unwilling to carry out the death penalty because it did not have staff with the expertise to carry out executions.
Hobbs had vowed not to carry out death sentences until there was confidence that the state could do so without breaking any law. Hobbs ordered a review that effectively ended in November when she fired the retired federal magistrate judge she appointed to lead the review.
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FILE: The gurney in the execution chamber of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Arizona has 111 inmates on death row, but was last executed death sentences in 2022, when three inmates were put to death, after a nearly eight-year hiatus, fueled by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
The state has since faced criticism for taking too long to insert an IV for a lethal injection into a death row inmate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
