Capital punishment in Arizona

Last updated

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. 95 executions have been carried out since Arizona became a state in 1914 and there are currently 111 people on death row. In November 2024, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the state would resume executions in 2025 after a 2-year pause.

Contents

History

Arizona abolished the death penalty for murder by popular vote in 1916, but reinstated it, again by popular vote, in 1918.

No executions occurred between 1962 and the national moratorium in 1972. Executions resumed in 1992.

In 2000, then-attorney general Janet Napolitano created a Capital Case Commission to study the State's capital punishment laws. The Commission issued a report in 2002, proposing changes to the "public defender’s office for capital cases, adjustments to laws and court rules, and minimum competency requirements." [1]

In 2007, due to the high number of pending capital cases after the election of Andrew Thomas as Maricopa County Attorney, Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor called for a review of the Death Penalty. The Arizona Supreme Court created the Capital Case Task Force. [2] The Court then established a Capital Case Oversight Committee. [3] The Committee studies "issues affecting the administration of capital cases and propose recommendations to improve the judicial administration of these cases." [4]

After the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, executions were temporarily suspended but resumed in 2022. [5] [6]

On January 23, 2023, newly inaugurated governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and in light of that, newly inaugurated attorney general Kris Mayes issued a hold on any executions in the state. [7] Hobbs appointed retired Magistrate Judge David Duncan as the reviewer. [8] However, in November 2024 Hobbs announced that she had canceled Judge Duncan's review after his updates had gone "far afield of her request to review the protocols and procedures" and her concerns were addressed in a separate report by the department of corrections. [9]

In 2024, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell filed suit against Kris Mayes in an attempt to force the execution of Aaron Gunches. [10]

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a retrial happens before another jury. If the second jury is also deadlocked, a life sentence is issued. [11]

The Governor of Arizona can grant clemency only with advice and consent of the five-member Arizona Board of Executive Clemency. [12]

Arizona's death row for males is located at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence in Florence. Female death row prisoners are housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville in Goodyear.

Capital crimes

Certain aggravating circumstances constitute capital murder in the State of Arizona: [13]

  1. prior conviction for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable;
  2. prior serious offense involving the use of threat or violence;
  3. grave risk of death to others;
  4. procurement of murder by payment or promise of payment;
  5. commission of murder for pecuniary gain;
  6. murder committed in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner;
  7. murder committed while in custody;
  8. multiple homicides;
  9. murder of a victim under 15 years of age or of a victim 70 years of age or older; and
  10. murder of a law enforcement officer.

Execution methods

Hanging of Zack Booth in Globe, Arizona Territory 1905 Iiif-service ndnp az batch az blackwidow ver01 data sn84021913 00211106256 1905092101 0062-1357x1346x1486x1413-full-0-default.jpg
Hanging of Zack Booth in Globe, Arizona Territory 1905

Arizona has used hanging, lethal gas, and lethal injection as its execution methods.

From Statehood until 1931, the primary execution method was hanging. Nineteen executions by hanging occurred between April 16, 1920 and June 20, 1931. The first gas execution occurred in 1934. [14]

Since capital punishment was resumed in 1976, 40 people in Arizona convicted of murder have been executed at Florence State Prison in Florence, Arizona. [15]

After the controversial and much-publicized 1992 execution of Donald Eugene Harding, who took 10 and 1/2 minutes to die, the voters changed the method to lethal injection. [16] However, inmates convicted for capital crimes committed prior to November 23, 1992 may choose gas inhalation instead. [17] [18] The last gas execution was Walter LaGrand on March 3, 1999.

The 2014 botched execution of Joseph Wood lead to a moratorium of executions until July 2019. [18] The state switched drugs from Midazolam to Pentobarbital. [19] [20]

The most recent execution in Arizona was that of Murray Hooper on November 16, 2022. [21]

Lethal injection drugs

Since 1992, Arizona has employed lethal injection for its executions. [22]

Until 2010, Arizona used sodium thiopental as the primary drug in its execution protocol until the drug stopped being commercially available and the state explored using midazolam. [23]

In 2011, the state was found to be lawfully buying execution drugs from Dream Pharma, a pharmaceutical company operating out of a driving school in west London, UK. [24]

In 2015, Arizona illegally tried to import sodium thiopental from India, but the shipment was seized by federal officials at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. [25]

In October 2019, Arizona's department of corrections paid $1.5m to a confidential source for 1,000 1g vials of pentobarbital. [26] In a 2024 episode of Last Week Tonight , comedian John Oliver claimed that Arizona had acquired the drugs from the Connecticut chemical company Absolute Standards. [27]

Notable capital cases

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lethal injection</span> Form of execution involving injection of chemicals into the bloodstream

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broader sense to include euthanasia and other forms of suicide. The drugs cause the person to become unconscious, stops their breathing, and causes a heart arrhythmia, in that order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in the United States</span>

In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in the other 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment by the United States federal government</span> Legal penalty in the United States

Capital punishment is a legal punishment under the criminal justice system of the United States federal government. It is the most serious punishment that could be imposed under federal law. The serious crimes that warrant this punishment include treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder of a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Louisiana</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in California</span>

Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California, due to both a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze conclude, executions could resume under the current state law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Nevada</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Ohio</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.

The U.S. state of Washington enforced capital punishment until the state's capital punishment statute was declared null and void and abolished in practice by a state Supreme Court ruling on October 11, 2018. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional as applied due to racial bias; however, it did not render the wider institution of capital punishment unconstitutional and rather required the statute to be amended to eliminate racial biases. From 1904 to 2010, 78 people were executed by the state; the last was Cal Coburn Brown on September 10, 2010. In April 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5087 which formally abolished capital punishment in Washington State and removed provisions for capital punishment from state law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Maryland</span>

Capital punishment was abolished via the legislative process on May 2, 2013, in the U.S. state of Maryland.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Alabama</span>

Capital punishment in Alabama is a legal penalty. Alabama has the highest per capita capital sentencing rate in the United States. In some years, its courts impose more death sentences than Texas, a state that has a population five times as large. However, Texas has a higher rate of executions both in absolute terms and per capita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Florida</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Greenwood Brown</span> American convicted rapist, child molester, and murderer on death row

Albert Greenwood Brown Jr. is an American murderer and rapist who has been convicted of sexual molestation with force of a minor, two counts of first-degree rape with force, and the first degree murder of a teen girl in Riverside, California.

The execution of Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan, who had been convicted of murder in the state of Arizona, was carried out on October 26, 2010, by lethal injection.

Glossip v. Gross, 576 U.S. 863 (2015), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held, 5–4, that lethal injections using midazolam to kill prisoners convicted of capital crimes do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court found that condemned prisoners can only challenge their method of execution after providing a known and available alternative method.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Montana.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Missouri.

Bucklew v. Precythe, 587 U.S. 119 (2019), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the standards for challenging methods of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that when a convict sentenced to death challenges the State's method of execution due to claims of excessive pain, the convict must show that other alternative methods of execution exist and clearly demonstrate they would cause less pain than the state-determined one. The Court's opinion emphasized the precedential force of its prior decisions in Baze v. Rees and Glossip v. Gross.

References

  1. ↑ Galindo, Erika (February 9, 2023). "Review is Not Enough: A Call for Death Penalty Abolition in Arizona". Law Journal for Social Justice. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  2. ↑ Arizona Supreme Court Capital Case Task Force[
  3. ↑ Court Order Establishing CCOC
  4. ↑ Capital Case Oversight Committee
  5. ↑ "Arizona halts executions after Joseph Wood case". BBC News. 25 July 2014.
  6. ↑ Davenport, Paul; Billeaud, Jacques (May 11, 2022). "Clarence Dixon dies in Arizona's 1st execution since 2014". Associated Press . Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Arizona executions are on hold until a review ordered by the governor is completed". NPR . 21 January 2023.
  8. ↑ Associated Press (February 24, 2023). "Retired judge picked to review Arizona's execution process". 12News. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  9. ↑ Fisher, Howard (27 November 2024). "Executions to resume after 2-year pause". Capitol Media Services. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  10. ↑ Fischer, Howard (July 24, 2024). "Maricopa prosecutor, AG spar over power to seek execution warrant". Tucson Star. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  11. ↑ "§ 13-752 Sentences of death, life imprisonment or natural life; imposition; sentencing proceedings; definitions". Law.justia.com. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Title 31 - Prisons and Prisoners". Azleg.gov. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Capital Punishment in Arizona" (PDF). Azag.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  14. ↑ "rizona Death Penalty History". AZDOC. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  15. ↑ "Last Meals Request". 10 June 2014.
  16. ↑ The Associated Press (1992-04-25). "Gruesome Death in Gas Chamber Pushes Arizona Toward Injections". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  17. ↑ "Methods of Execution". Clarkprosecutor.org. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  18. 1 2 Resnik, Brahm (2021-06-14) [2021-06-07]. "Arizona plans to use poisonous gas similar to Nazis' in executions. Here are 6 things to know". 12News. KPNX-TV. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  19. ↑ "Arizona abandons use of sedative as a lethal-injection drug". AP News. 2016-06-25. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  20. ↑ Kiefer, Michael. "Arizona publishes new lethal injection rules for prisoner executions". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  21. ↑ "Most Recent Executions". Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry . Archived from the original on January 28, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
  22. ↑ "Arizona - Capital Punishment - Death Penalty". Deathpenalty.uslegal.com. 1992-11-23. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  23. ↑ Kiefer, Michael (May 26, 2014). "Drug switch underscores Arizona's struggle with execution standards". AZCentral. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  24. ↑ "London firm supplied drugs for US executions". the Guardian. 2011-01-06. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  25. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (2015-10-23). "Death penalty states illegally imported drugs for executions despite warnings". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  26. ↑ "Revealed: Republican-led states secretly spending huge sums on execution drugs". the Guardian. 2021-04-09. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  27. ↑ Loesch, Cailin (Apr 12, 2024). "CT Company Accused Of Secretly Making Lethal Injection Drugs: Reports". Patch. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.