Death Row Inmate Asks to Expedite His Execution

Aaron Gunches doesn't want to waste any more time. The death row inmate in Arizona, convicted of murdering his girlfriend's ex more than two decades ago, put in a handwritten request on New Year's Eve to the state's Supreme Court to circumvent the legal wrangling and move up his execution date, reports the AP. Gunches' preferred date: Valentine's Day, per the Washington Post.

• Arizona last carried out executions in 2022, when it conducted three, and in early 2023, Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes halted capital punishment in the state so it could conduct a review on struggles experienced during those three lethal injections, per the Arizona Republic. In November, Hobbs ended the review process, and soon after, Mayes announced she'd be calling for a warrant for Gunches' execution.

• On Wednesday, the state's high court rejected his request for a Feb. 14 death date, instead granting Mayes' request to set a briefing schedule for an execution warrant. Based on that timetable, Gunches' earliest execution date would be the middle of March.
• Gunches pleaded guilty to kidnapping and first-degree murder in the 2002 death of Ted Price, a former romantic partner of Gunches' then-girlfriend. Price and Gunches' girlfriend apparently had a spat, in which she struck Price; Gunches and an associate then were said to have driven Price out to the desert near Mesa, where Gunches fatally shot him four times, per the Post.
• Gunches, who was sentenced to death in 2008 and is now representing himself, said in his motion to the Arizona Supreme Court that his execution is "long overdue" and that he's done with the state's "foot dragging." "This sentence ... should not be delayed any further," Gunches wrote. "Let the laws of Arizona finally be followed and justice served."
• Still, just because Gunches is fine with putting an end to his own life sooner rather than later, critics of the shoddy use of the drug pentobarbital in past executions say his wishes are irrelevant, as the state's procedures can cause "torturous deaths." "Mr. Gunches' apparent willingness to be executed does not change these facts," University of Richmond law professor Corinna Lain tells the Post.

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