Arizona Supreme Court sets date for state's 1st execution in over 2 years

The Arizona Supreme Court set a March 19 execution date Tuesday for a man who pleaded guilty to murder more than 17 years ago and recently said his death sentence was “long overdue.” It would be the state’s first application of the death penalty in more than two years.

Outside parties filed legal briefs arguing it would be improper for the Department of Corrections to move ahead using its supply of pentobarbital. They claimed the drug causes a painful death by filling the lungs with fluid.

But Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said the court can only decide whether legal requirements were met after the state seeks an execution warrant.

Aaron Gunches’ execution would be the first under Governor Hobbs, who put the penalty on pause while the state investigated its execution methods. A final report was never released.

There are 111 inmates on death row and 25 who have exhausted or waived all appeals.

The court issued an execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches, who was convicted in 2007 in the 2002 shooting death of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, near Mesa.

Gunches also shot a trooper twice when he was pulled over by the Arizona Department of Public Safety near the California border in 2003, according to authorities. A bulletproof vest saved the trooper, and bullet casings from that scene matched ones found near Price’s body.

Arizona, which has 112 prisoners on death row, last carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining drugs for execution. In one of the 2022 executions, the state was criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a condemned prisoner.

The court had issued a death warrant for Gunches nearly two years ago, but the sentence wasn’t carried out because the state’s Democratic attorney general agreed not to pursue executions during a review of the state’s death penalty protocol. The review ended in November when Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs dismissed the retired federal magistrate judge she had appointed to examine execution procedures.

A spokesman said then that the review resulted in critical improvements to meet legal and constitutional standards, and that the governor “remains committed to upholding the law while ensuring justice is carried out in a way that’s transparent and humane.”

The 53-year-old Gunches, who isn’t a lawyer but is representing himself, had asked the court in late December to skip legal formalities and schedule his lethal injection earlier than authorities had planned, saying his death sentence was “long overdue.” The state Supreme Court rejected his request.

There was no immediate response to phone and email messages seeking comment from Emily Skinner, an attorney who serves as Gunches’ advisory counsel.