Arizona Inmate Seeks Earlier Execution Date Than Planned by State
An Arizona death row inmate is pushing for an expedited execution date, claiming the process is taking too long
Arizona, Aaron Brian Gunches, Death Row, Execution, Lethal Injection, Ted Price
Phoenix: So, there’s this guy, Aaron Brian Gunches, who’s on death row in Arizona. He’s actually asking the state Supreme Court to speed things up and set his execution date sooner than what they had planned.
Gunches, who’s 53, was convicted for killing his girlfriend’s ex-husband back in 2002. He’s been pretty vocal about wanting to get it over with, saying his execution is “long overdue.”
This would be a big deal for Arizona since it would be the first execution since they paused things for a couple of years to review how they do it. Gunches even filed a handwritten request to have his execution scheduled for mid-February.
He feels like the state is dragging its feet, especially since they’re asking for a legal briefing before they can move forward. The Attorney General’s office is on board with this, but they want to make sure everything is in place for the lethal injection.
It’s been a wild ride for Gunches. His execution was supposed to happen in April 2023, but the governor stepped in, saying they weren’t ready to carry it out properly. She wanted to make sure they could do it without any legal hiccups.
Arizona has a lot of folks on death row—111 to be exact—but they haven’t executed anyone since 2022. That was after a long pause due to some serious issues with how they handled previous executions.
So, it’s a tense situation, and Gunches is just trying to get closure for himself and the victim’s family. It’s a complicated mess, for sure.