Aaron Gunches, who was convicted of murdering a man in Mesa, is officially scheduled to be executed through lethal injection on March 19.
PHOENIX — Arizona’s first death row execution since 2022 has been scheduled to take place later this month.
Aaron Gunches, who was convicted of the 2002 killing of Ted Price in Mesa, is officially scheduled to be executed through lethal injection on March 19 at 10 a.m. in Florence, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The last execution carried out in Arizona occurred in November 2022.
Gunches’ capital case was interrupted and stalled after Gov. Katie Hobbs halted executions to allow for a review of the state’s execution procedures. The governor’s review effectively ended in November when Hobbs dismissed the retired federal judge she had appointed to head the project.
At one point during the legal process, Gunches said his own death sentence was “long overdue.”
Arizona didn’t carry out any executions for near eight years after accusations that a 2014 execution was allegedly botched and mishandled due to difficulties from obtaining drugs for execution.
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