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       #Post#: 585--------------------------------------------------
       ~ Aaron Gunches, (AZ) ~
       By: BuzzC Date: March 31, 2023, 9:19 pm
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       Arizona court OKs execution request that AG tried to undo--
       March 2nd, 2023
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       PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court issued a warrant to
       execute a prisoner even though the state’s new Democratic
       attorney general tried to withdraw her Republican predecessor’s
       request to carry out the execution.
       The decision to schedule the execution of Aaron Gunches came six
       weeks after Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office said it wasn’t
       going to seek court orders to execute prisoners until a review
       ordered by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs of death penalty
       procedures is completed. The state has a history of mismanaging
       executions.
       In an order issued Thursday, the state’s highest court said it
       must grant an execution warrant if certain appellate proceedings
       have concluded — and the court said those requirements were met
       in Gunches’ case.
       The court said the review being conducted by the Hobbs
       administration “does not constitute good cause for refraining
       from issuing the warrant.”
       Mayes’ office declined to comment on the Supreme Court’s order,
       and Hobbs’ office didn’t immediately respond to a request for
       comment on the decision.
       Nearly a week ago, Hobbs appointed retired U.S. Magistrate Judge
       David Duncan to examine the state’s procurement of lethal
       injection drugs and other death penalty protocols.
       While Hobbs didn’t declare a moratorium on the death penalty,
       Mayes’ office said she would not seek court orders to execute
       prisoners while the review is underway.
       Arizona, which currently has 110 prisoners on death row, carried
       out three executions last year after a nearly eight-year hiatus
       that was brought on by 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
       condemned prisoner’s body in early May and for denying the
       Arizona Republic newspaper’s request to witness the last three
       executions. Gunches is scheduled to be executed on April 6 for
       his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price, his
       girlfriend’s ex-husband, in Maricopa County. Gunches, who isn’t
       a lawyer, represented himself in November when he asked Supreme
       Court to issue his execution warrant so that justice could be
       served and the victims could get closure. In Republican Attorney
       General Mark Brnovich’s last month in office, his office asked
       the court for a warrant to execute Gunches.
       But Gunches then withdrew his request in early January, and
       Mayes later asked for the execution warrant submitted during
       Brnovich’s tenure to be withdrawn.
       ::)
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