Arizona death row inmate wants execution sooner than state expects

An Arizona death row inmate has asked the state Supreme Court to avoid legal red tape and schedule his execution sooner than authorities expected.

Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, had previously pushed for the state to carry out his execution for his conviction in the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend's ex-husband, to which he had pleaded guilty. He will be put to death by lethal injection.

Grunches' execution would be the first in Arizona to use the death penalty since a two-year pause to review execution procedures.

In a handwritten brief filed this week, Gunches, who is not a lawyer but represents himself, urged the state's high court to schedule his execution for mid-February.

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Aaron Brian Gunches was convicted of the 2002 murder of Ted Price in Maricopa County, Arizona. (Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry via AP)

He said his death sentence was “long overdue” and that the state was prolonging the process by asking the court for a schedule of pre-execution legal briefings.

The office of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who is prosecuting Gunches' execution, said a briefing schedule must be established to ensure that corrections officials meet execution requirements, including pentobarbital testing that will be used for his lethal injection.

Two years ago, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to issue his execution warrant, believing justice could be served and the victim's family could get closure.

The Alabama Lethal Injection Chamber is shown October 7, 2002 at Holman Correctional Institution in Atmore, Alabama. (PA)

Gunches' execution was scheduled for April 2023 before Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs' office said the state was not ready to carry out the death penalty because it did not have staff with the expertise necessary to carry out executions.

Hobbs pledged not to carry out any death sentences until he was satisfied that the state could do so without violating any laws. Hobbs had ordered a review that effectively ended in November when she fired the retired federal judge she had appointed to lead the review.

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FILE: The gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

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Arizona has 111 inmates on death row, but their last death sentence was in 2022, when three inmates were put to death, following a nearly eight-year hiatus sparked by criticism that a 2014 execution had been botched and due to difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.

The state has since been criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a death row inmate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.