By Ivan Villegas
PHOENIX, AZ – The Democratic governor of Arizona promised last Friday not to execute Aaron Gunches for his 2002 murder conviction, just a day after the state Supreme Court ordered his execution be carried out.
An article by the Associated Press on Friday stated the governor “appointed retired U.S. Magistrate Judge David Duncan to examine the state’s procurement of lethal injection drugs and other death penalty protocols due to the state’s history of mismanaging executions.”
The state recently resumed executions, carrying 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,” according to the Associated Press.
In spite of this, and over the objections of the state’s new attorney general, the AP said the state Supreme Court ruled the state “must grant an execution warrant if certain appellate proceedings have concluded – and that those requirements were met in Gunches’ case.”
In regard to Hobbs appointing a retired judge to review the state’s death penalty protocols, the court said that “[it] does not constitute good cause for refraining from issuing the warrant.”
The Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, said she won’t carry out the execution warrant while Hobbs’ review is in progress.
As the Associated Press reported, in January “Mayes…tried to withdraw a request by her Republican predecessor, Mark Brnovich, for a warrant to Gunches. The court declined to withdraw the request on Thursday.”
Gunches represented himself in November, said the AP, “when he asked the Supreme Court to issue his execution warrant so justice could be served and the victims could get closure…[b]ut Gunches withdrew his request in early January.”
Former federal public defender, Dale Baich, said that Hobbs’ decision is not uncommon.
“Governors in Alabama, Ohio and Tennessee recently used their authority to pause executions because they had serious questions about the protocols in their states,” Baich told the Associated Press.
In addition, wrote the AP, “Dale Baich…said Hobbs can use her authority as the state’s chief executive when the state believes it cannot carry out an execution in a constitutionally acceptable manner.”
