Phoenix-A man from Arizona who declared himself guilty of first-degree murder was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday in the first use of the state of the death penalty in more than two years.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was scheduled to be lethally injected with Pentobarbital in the Arizona state prison complex in Florence. Gunches fatally shot Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex -husband, in the desert outside the table of Phoenix de Mesa in 2002.
Gunches is the second of the four death prisoners in the United States that will be executed this week. Louisiana executed a man on Tuesday and two more executions were scheduled in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday. Gunches will be the first person executed in a state with a Democrat who serves as governor since Virginia did it in 2017 when Terry Mcauliffe was in charge.
The execution of Gunches had been originally scheduled by April 2023, but was canceled after Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the state’s death penalty procedures. At the end of last year, Hobbs dismissed the retired judge who had appointed the review, and the State Corrections Department announced changes in the team that lethaly inject the prisoners of the death corridor.
The murder
The authorities say that Price’s ex -wife hit Price on her face with a phone during a discussion at the end of 2002 in her department, leaving him conscious but stunned. Price’s sister Karen Price said her brother had threatened to inform her ex to child welfare authorities for drugs in front of her children.
Gunches arrived in the apartment later. He asked two other women who were there with his girlfriend to put Price in a car and take him to a bus station. But when they realized that they did not have enough money for a bus ticket, instead they led to the desert, where Gunches shot the price, authorities said.
Gunches was arrested in January 2003 after being arrested by a public security soldier from Arizona near the California state line. Gunches shot the soldier, who was saved by a bulletproof vest. The shooting bullet covers coincided with ammunition that had been found near Price’s body, and Gunches was accused of first -degree murder and kidnapping in October 2003. He declared himself guilty in 2007.
Karen Price described his brother as a kind and loving person who enjoyed watching the Diaenix Suns and Arizona diamondbacks and riding his motorcycle. She said her family was devastated by Ted’s death.
Gunches tries to raise the execution
Gunches, who represented himself despite the fact that he is not a lawyer, asked Arizona’s Supreme Court in 2022 to issue an execution order against him to give a closure to Price’s family. Later he withdrew the application. The execution was scheduled anyway, but then postponed in the middle of the review ordered by Hobbs.
At the end of December, Gunches asked the highest court to skip the legal formalities and scheduled its execution as soon as possible, saying that his death sentence was “very late.” The court rejected the application and then established its execution date for Wednesday.
A respite is not expected
No last -minute refunds are expected for the Gunches, despite the objections of the lawyers who did not represent him, but they still asked the Arizona Supreme Court not to issue their execution order. The lawyers said that injecting someone with Pentobarbital in large quantities has shown that the liquid is filtered into the lungs and drowns people in their own fluids.
The court rejected its application, saying that it was not appropriate to use the case of Gunches to argue the merits of the lethal injection. He also ruled that the necessary requirements had been met to carry out the execution of Gunches.
Last week, Gunches renounced his right to find a respite from the Arizona Clemencia Board.
