Aaron Brian Gunches, convicted in 2002 of murder, was to be executed in 2023 but the state had said it did not have competent personnel. He asked the Arizona Supreme Court to schedule his execution as soon as possible.
A death row inmate in Arizona, United States, has asked the state's highest court to schedule his execution soon, ahead of schedule planned by authorities. As explained by the Associated Press, Aaron Brian Gunches was convicted of the murder of his partner's ex-husband in 2002.
His execution, scheduled for April 2023, had been postponed by the office of Governor Katie Hobbs who had highlighted a lack of competent personnel within the state to carry out death sentences.
Aaron Brian Gunches appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February. He notably declared that his death sentence was “long overdue”.
No executions since 2022
The authorities, for their part, explained that an information schedule was necessary to meet enforcement requirements, such as testing of the product used. For her part, Katie Hobbs assured that no executions would be organized until the state had met these demands.
It has been since 2022 that Arizona, which has 111 prisoners on death row, has not carried out executions.
