Attorney General Kris Mayes has picked up some allies in her fight with Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell over who gets to seek to execute Aaron Gunches.
In a new legal filing, former Attorney General Terry Goddard joined with two former county attorneys, Republican Rick Romley of Maricopa County and Barbara LaWall of Pima County, to urge the Supreme Court to reject Mitchell's bid to seek a warrant of execution. They said the history of the death penalty of the state and associated legislation makes clear why the Attorney General's Office is in charge.
And attorney Andrew Stone, who filed the friend of the court brief, said his clients believe that Mitchell's position is "bad public policy and unworkable.''
Hanging in the balance is the life of Aaron Gunches who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in the 2002 death of Ted Price, his girlfriend's ex-husband.
A warrant for execution had been issued in 2022 at the request of then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich. But that warrant, which had a fixed times limit, expired before the execution was carried out.
Mayes, newly elected in 2023, declined for the moment to seek a new one.
The attorney general said she is waiting on a report by a special Death Penalty Commission named by Gov. Katie Hobbs, also newly elected. She said the process has remained plagued by questions.
"Recent executions have been embroiled in controversy,'' the governor said. There were reports that prison employees had repeated problems in placing the intravenous line into the veins of the condemned men.
"The death penalty is a controversial issue to begin with,'' Hobbs continued. "We just want to make sure the practices are sound and that we don't end up with botched executions like we've seen recently.''
That report is not expected to be ready before the end of the year.
But Mitchell insists that she has concurrent authority to ask the high court, in the name of "the state,'' to set a date for Gunches' execution, prompting the brief by Goddard, Romley and LaWall.
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