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Thread: Arizona Capital Punishment News

  1. #211
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    And it's over.

    Gov. Hobbs, Attorney General Mayes pause death penalty in Arizona pending review process

    By Jimmy Jenkins
    The Arizona Republic

    Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the appointment of a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner on Friday, and Attorney General Kris Mayes filed to withdraw a motion for the only pending death warrant, effectively pausing executions in Arizona.

    In a statement, Hobbs said the commissioner would be tasked with "reviewing and providing transparency into the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry (ADCRR) lethal injection drug and gas chamber chemical procurement process, execution protocols, and staffing considerations including training and experience."

    Hobbs said the commissioner will then issue a final report that includes recommendations on improving the transparency, accountability, and safety of the execution process.

    “With the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry now under new leadership, it’s time to address the fact that this is a system that needs better oversight on numerous fronts,” Hobbs said. “Arizona has a history of mismanaged executions that have resulted in serious questions and concerns about ADCRR’s execution protocols and lack of transparency. I’m confident that under Director Thornell, ADCRR will take this executive action seriously.”

    Former Gov. Doug Ducey and former Attorney General Mark Brnovich resumed executions in Arizona in 2022, carrying out the lethal injections of death row prisoners Clarence Dixon, Frank Atwood, and Murray Hooper.

    Death row prisoner Aaron Gunches had filed a motion in November asking the Arizona Supreme Court to issue a death warrant, "so that justice may be lawfully served and give closure to the victim's family." But Gunches subsequently changed his mind.

    Gunches was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, a former longtime boyfriend of Gunches' girlfriend. Gunches kidnapped and shot Price multiple times in a desert area off the Beeline Highway.

    Gunches pled guilty to kidnapping and first-degree murder in 2004, and he has consistently waived his right to counsel, mitigation and post-conviction litigation.

    Brnovich responded with his own request for Gunches' execution warrant.

    But Gunches filed another motion in January, telling the state Supreme Court he had changed his mind after reading an Arizona Republic article quoting then-candidate Mayes, who said, "We need to take some time to assess how the death penalty has worked, and make sure that this is done legally and correctly."

    Gunches told the state Supreme Court he would not have filed his previous motion requesting the warrant, "had he known this stunning news, and now seeks to withdraw."

    Arizona's death row:These are the prisoners facing execution

    Gunches also pointed to the three executions in 2022 where Arizona Department of Corrections execution team members struggled to insert IV lines during the lethal injection process.

    "My predecessor's administration sought a warrant of execution for Mr. Gunches after he initiated the proceedings himself," Mayes said on Friday. "These circumstances have now changed."

    Mayes said Gunches' request is not the only reason she was requesting the previous motion be withdrawn.

    "A thorough review of Arizona's protocols and processes governing capital punishment is needed," Mayes said. "I applaud Governor Hobbs for establishing a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner to begin that process.”

    Mayes pointed to other states and the federal government, which are also reviewing their use of the death penalty. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey halted all executions in the state in November after two botched lethal injections, calling for a “top-to-bottom” review of the process.

    “If Arizona is going to execute individuals, it should have a system for doing so that is transparent, accountable, and carried out in a manner faithful to our constitution and the rule of law,” Mayes said. "I look forward to working with the governor, the newly established commissioner, and others to ensure the public's confidence in Arizona's capital punishment system."

    Karen Price, Ted Price's sister, wants the execution to move forward. Price argued in a court filing that she has a constitutional right "to a prompt and final conclusion of the case."

    In a motion filed in response to Gunches' motion to withdraw his request for a death warrant, Arizona Voice For Crime Victims attorney Colleen Clase said Gunches "callously" ended Ted Price's life, causing his family "more than two decades of emotional pain as well as a longing for an end of the criminal process."

    There are 110 prisoners on Arizona’s death row. Of those, 21 have exhausted their appeals.

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...w/69825942007/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #212
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    With GOP losing energy in the state the DP is mostly slated for execution by the turn of the decade.

  3. #213
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Retired judge picked to review Arizona’s execution process

    By Associated Press

    A retired federal magistrate judge was appointed to review the execution process in Arizona as part of an examination ordered by Gov. Katie Hobbs of procurement of lethal injection drugs and other death penalty protocols due to the state’s history of mismanaging executions.

    The Democratic governor announced the appointment of retired Magistrate Judge David Duncan on Friday.

    Duncan had previously presided over a lawsuit challenging the quality of health care for Arizona prisoners and was known for criticizing corrections officials and issuing a $1.4 million contempt of court fine against the state for failing to follow through on promises to improve care for prisoners.

    While Hobbs didn’t declare a moratorium on the death penalty, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said she will not seek court orders to execute prisoners while the review is underway.

    The review will examine, among other things, the state’s procurement process for lethal injection drugs and lethal gas, execution procedures, the access of news organizations to executions and the training of staff to carry out executions.

    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 into a condemned prisoner’s body in early May and for denying the Arizona Republic newspaper’s request to witness the last three executions.

    https://www.abc15.com/news/state/ret...cution-process
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #214
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    This is the consequence for Arizona republicans for allowing their state party to go insane.

  5. #215
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Supreme Court sends six death row cases back to Arizona courts after Cruz ruling

    By Jimmy Jenkins
    The Arizona Republic

    The U.S. Supreme Court is sending six death row cases back to Arizona trial courts for reconsideration in light of a recent ruling.

    The high court on Monday vacated judgments for convicted murderers Johnathan Burns, Steve Boggs, Ruben Garza, Fabio Gomez, Steven Newell, and Stephen Reeves. The cases will be returned to the superior courts in Arizona "for consideration," which could take several forms, including parties filing supplemental briefings or the courts issuing new rulings.

    Monday's ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled in favor of John Cruz, who challenged his death sentence because he was not permitted to tell jurors that if he were given a life sentence, it would be without parole.

    Three people have already had their death sentences vacated by the Arizona Supreme Court, also because of the Cruz ruling, which relied on a key principle established in a 2016 case, Lynch v. Arizona.

    This week, the question before the high court was whether Arizona's courts were "required" to apply the Lynch standards to these six cases after the fact.

    The state had argued that the defense team never asked the trial court to instruct the jury they were ineligible for parole, and thus relinquished their right to appeal on that basis. They also argued that the failure to inform jurors never harmed their defense because prosecutors never brought up the key issue of their potential "future dangerousness."

    But attorneys for Burns and the other petitioners argued in briefings to the U.S. Supreme Court that federal law trumped the state courts' interpretations.

    "It is difficult to imagine a state rule that more clearly discriminates against federal law than the one at issue here. It prohibits state postconviction courts from applying decisions that federal law requires postconviction courts to apply," Burns' lawyers wrote.

    The entire legal debate about this aspect of Arizona's death penalty stems from the 1996 Supreme Court case Simmons v. South Carolina. It set the precedent for defendants to be able to tell juries that they would not be eligible for parole if they were sentenced to life in prison instead of death. But for many years, Arizona refused to apply the ruling.

    In the 2016 ruling Lynch v Arizona, the court made clear the ruling did, in fact, apply to Arizona. The six men who were granted certiorari on Monday sought post-conviction relief in light of Lynch but were denied by the state supreme court. Granting certiorari means the court agreed to review the cases.

    After the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the Cruz sentencing, the six men also sought relief, which the high court granted.

    Emily Skinner, an attorney with the Arizona Capitol Representation Project, says the Cruz ruling was important because it stated that the Lynch decision was a "significant change" in Arizona law.

    "There is a rule of criminal procedure in Arizona that allows conviction petitioners to allege that there had been a significant change in the law that applies to their case," Skinner said. "In Mr. Cruz's case, the Arizona Supreme Court had held that Lynch wasn't a significant change in the law, it was merely a significant change in the application of the law. And so, the relevant Rules of Criminal Procedure did not apply."

    Skinner said the Cruz ruling means that now the rules do apply.

    Skinner said the Supreme Court granting certiorari to Burns and his co-petitioners is doing justice to ensure that juries are properly instructed on the meaning of a life sentence in Arizona.

    She said there are likely many more cases in the pipeline that could also be revisited under Cruz.

    "There's a number of people who still have their post-conviction petition pending in the superior court, who may have lost on the Lynch claim, but they haven't made their way up to petition for review yet at the Arizona State Supreme Court."

    At least nine people are seeking post-conviction review. Still, as many as 30 capital defendants may be affected by the decision, according to Elizabeth Bentley, director of the University of Minnesota Law School's Civil Rights Appellate Practice.

    Attorneys for Burns and his co-petitioners said the state's legal stance on those cases was "nothing short of the nullification of a constitutional right for defendants sentenced to death in Arizona."

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...g/69978631007/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #216
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    30 cases? Thanks Roberts and Kavanuagh. Just like Aaron said on the site back in 2021 the conservative movement should be renamed acquiesce. They don’t conserve anything. All they do is acquiesce and this another example of it. If it’s not about abortion or gun related conservatives fold on the issue.

  7. #217
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Gov. Hobbs' prisons director says executions can resume. Will Hobbs give go-ahead?

    By Brahm Resnik
    12news.com

    Arizona's new prisons director says he's ready to resume executions on death row. But will Gov. Katie Hobbs give the go-ahead?

    Ryan Thornell was peppered with questions Tuesday by state senators vetting his nomination.

    Has he fixed Arizona's execution process? The answer was "yes."

    "The issues, the questions, the concerns I had as director have all been resolved," Thornell told the Senate's Committee on Director Nominations.

    The committee advanced Thornell's nomination to the full Senate.

    Back in March, Thornell painted a different picture when Hobbs refused to carry out the execution of Aaron Gunches, the first during her watch as governor.

    Thornell testified then that he didn't have the staff to carry out executions or the drugs for lethal injections.

    "I was fully transparent with (Hobbs' team) that we were going to continue with our preparation processes," Thornell told the committee.

    Thornell kept working on the problems. The death chamber, he said, was ready a month ago.

    "We are operationally prepared as of May 5 to carry out an execution," said Thornell, former deputy director of the State of Maine's prison system.

    But a Hobbs spokesman says nothing has changed at her end.

    Hobbs' pause on executions remains in place.

    The Democratic governor is awaiting a report from an independent commissioner reviewing the state's execution procedures.

    There's no deadline for the report's delivery.

    Former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich restarted execution in 2022 after an eight-year hiatus. A botched execution resulted in a court settlement that proscribes how the state carries out the death penalty.

    Three death row inmates were executed in Brnovich's final eight months in office. Brnovich also set in motion the death warrant for Gunches' execution, which Hobbs refused to carry out.

    A spokesman for Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who's responsible for seeking death warrants for executions, said Mayes is also waiting for the independent report.

    Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said Thornell's progress on executions gives hope to crime victims' families seeking resolution.

    "It was a pleasant surprise," Mitchell said in an interview.

    Mitchell will continue to pursue the death penalty. Her office is already preparing for appeals of a man sentenced to death Wednesday for the "Canal Killings" in Phoenix in the 1990s.

    "We're going to proceed, business as usual," she said. "The law is still the law. It hasn't changed."

    Mitchell is pursuing a lawsuit that challenges the governor's authority to refuse to carry out an execution.

    https://www.12news.com/article/news/...1-a5c95381e425
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #218
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    There’s now no excuse for Hobbs not to allow the execution of Aaron Gunches to go forward. If she doesn’t that will make her look even worse.
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  9. #219
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Lawsuit protesting Arizona Gov. Hobbs' refusal to execute prisoner dismissed

    By Jacques Billeaud
    fox10phoenix.com

    A lawsuit that alleged Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs exceeded her power in refusing to execute a prisoner earlier this year has been dismissed at the request of attorneys on both sides of the case.

    The lawsuit dismissed Thursday had tried unsuccessfully to force the Democratic governor, who had ordered a review of Arizona’s death penalty protocols because of the state’s history of mismanaged executions, to carry out the execution of Aaron Gunches for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price.

    Hobbs has vowed to not carry out any death sentences until there is confidence the state can do so without violating the law. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office has said it wouldn’t seek any court orders to execute prisoners while the governor’s review of death penalty procedures is underway.

    In the weeks leading up to the April 6 execution date set for Gunches by the state’s highest court, Hobbs’ office also maintained the state wasn’t prepared to enforce the death penalty, saying it lacked staff with expertise to carry out executions, was unable to find an IV team to carry out the lethal injection and didn’t have a contract with a pharmacist to compound the pentobarbital needed for an execution.

    But a dismissal agreement filed earlier this week by attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit provided an update on the state’s readiness to enforce death sentences. It said the state has had staff in place to carry out executions as of May 5 and will look for a compounding pharmacist.

    Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, the top prosecutor for metro Phoenix who along with two of Price’s relatives had filed the lawsuit against Hobbs, said the civil case was resolved because it answered the question of whether the state was prepared to carry out another execution.

    Still, Mitchell left open the possibility that she would ask a court in the future to let her seek execution warrants, which are normally requested by the Attorney General’s Office.

    While lawyers for Hobbs have said only the attorney general can seek a warrant of execution, Mitchell said there was no case law saying only the attorney general could request such a court order.

    "I am hopeful that this will get resolved by the governor’s office quickly, keeping in mind what the victims are going through and hopefully they get back to business as usual. If that doesn’t happen, we will have to explore other options" including asking a court to let her seek execution warrants, Mitchell said.

    The governor’s office and Colleen Clase, an attorney representing sister Karen Price and daughter Brittney Kay in the lawsuit, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

    On the day that the Gunches’ execution warrant was set to expire, the lower-court judge presiding over the lawsuit said he couldn’t issue or extend the order. The warrant expired without Gunches being executed.

    Gunches had pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the shooting death of Ted Price, who was his girlfriend’s ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

    Arizona, which currently has 110 prisoners on death row, carried out three executions last year. That followed a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining execution drugs.

    Since then, the state has been criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a condemned prisoner’s body and for denying the Arizona Republic permission to witness the three executions.

    No executions are currently scheduled in Arizona.

    https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/la...oner-dismissed
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #220
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Another Arizona death penalty case has been sent back after Supreme Court ruling

    By Jimmy Jenkins
    The Arizona Republic

    The United States Supreme Court has sent another death penalty case back to Maricopa County in the wake of a ruling that could affect many more capital cases in Arizona.

    On Monday, the high court overturned the Arizona Supreme Court's refusal to review an appeal from Manuel Ovante, who argued that the trial judge gave him and his jury incorrect sentencing information.

    This year, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded a total of seven Arizona capital defendants' cases to the lower courts through two separate rulings. Four others also had their cases sent back under a previous, similar ruling. Of these, one man was sentenced to death a second time earlier this year.

    Ovante's case took a similar path.

    He was accused of driving around Phoenix in June 2008, high on methamphetamine and killing two people in three shootings.

    He pled guilty to first-degree murder after a judge erroneously told him he could potentially receive life with parole. But parole had been abolished in Arizona more than a decade earlier, in 1994.

    At his sentencing, the judge mistakenly told the jury that if they sentenced Ovante to life, instead of the death penalty, he would be eligible for parole. The jury sentenced him to death in 2018.

    The Supreme Court ruling in a 1994 case known as Simmons v South Carolina set the precedent for defendants to be able to tell juries that they would not be eligible for parole if they were sentenced to life in prison instead of death. But for many years, Arizona refused to apply the ruling.

    A 2016 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in Lynch v. Arizona affirmed that the Simmons precedent applied in Arizona, but the Arizona Supreme Court continued to refuse to recognize it.

    In February, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of John Montenegro Cruz, who challenged his death sentence because he was not permitted to tell jurors that if he were given a life sentence, it would be without parole. The high court found that the Arizona Supreme Court was wrong to say Lynch did not apply in Arizona, finding that it was a significant change in the law.

    Since the Cruz ruling, several capital cases have been sent back to Arizona for review.

    Earlier this year, the high court sent six death row cases back to Arizona trial courts for reconsideration in light of the Cruz ruling. Legal experts say as many as 30 capital defendants in total could be affected by the Cruz decision.

    Garrett Simpson, at attorney for Ovante, said it was his understanding that the high court would issue a mandate in a few weeks that will officially return the case to the Maricopa County Superior Court for further proceedings.

    "We're hopeful. It's a better day than it was yesterday," Simpson said in response to the ruling. He said he had spoken to Ovante and conveyed the ruling to him. "We're very happy to have the results and we're moving forward to be responsive to the proceedings that may follow."

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...g/71034915007/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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