Arizona’s Embarrassing Death Penalty Mess Takes a New Turn

An formidable prosecutor in search of re-election, a governor attempting to determine what’s fallacious together with her state’s demise penalty system, a sufferer’s household pushing to see a killer executed, an lawyer normal in search of to protect her authority within the demise penalty system, a demise row inmate whose destiny is within the stability—these components are a well-known a part of the story of capital punishment throughout the nation. However all of them are actually vividly on show in Arizona, the place the political motives of an formidable county lawyer are driving a contest over the principles governing who will get to say when it’s time to problem a demise warrant.

The mess in Arizona has arisen within the case of Aaron Gunches. Gunches, who was sentenced to demise for the 2002 killing of his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Value, pled responsible to a homicide cost within the capturing demise. He has been on demise row since 2008.

The Gunches case has had greater than its share of twists and turns up thus far. However now, Maricopa County Legal professional Rachel Mitchell has added a brand new and troubling wrinkle.

She is defying legislation and logic to assert authority that she doesn’t have as she seeks to safe a demise warrant for Gunches. An area information report makes clear that below Arizona legislation “it’s solely as much as the lawyer normal to ask the Arizona Supreme Courtroom for the mandatory warrant to execute somebody as soon as all appeals have been exhausted.”

Nonetheless, on June 5, Mitchell, who’s a Republican, took the unprecedented step of submitting a movement with the Arizona Supreme Courtroom in what she herself admitted is “a transfer to in the end search a warrant of execution for Aaron Brian Gunches.”

Mitchell’s political motives are clear. In 2022, she was elected with 52% of the vote after a hotly fought contest with Democrat Julie Gunnigle. This yr, she faces what’s shaping as much as be a equally tight race for re-election.

The Gunches case presents her an opportunity to bolster her tough-on-crime credentials and rating factors as a powerful supporter of victims’ rights.

The problems of that case embody the truth that in November 2022, Gunches himself requested the state supreme courtroom to permit his execution to maneuver ahead. Republican Mark Brnovich, who was then Arizona’s lawyer normal, joined him in that request.

The courtroom granted Gunches’s request.

However after Brnovich was defeated for re-election, Gunches modified his thoughts. In January 2023, Democrat Kris Mayes, the brand new lawyer normal, joined him in asking the state supreme courtroom to withdraw the execution warrant.

Nevertheless, the courtroom rejected Mayes’s request and set an execution date. Then Governor Katie Hobbs bought concerned.

Regardless of the courtroom’s actions, Hobbs mentioned that her administration wouldn’t proceed with the execution. She argued that the demise warrant solely “licensed” the execution however didn’t require that it happen.

An Arizona State Regulation Journal article famous that “Governor Hobbs’s determination to not transfer ahead with the warrant for execution raised the constitutional query of whether or not she was capable of ignore the warrant or whether or not it required her to behave.”

It reported that “Karen Value, the sufferer’s sister, and her attorneys…sought a writ of mandamus (an order that compels a public official to meet a non-discretionary obligation imposed by legislation) towards Hobbs to power her to execute Gunches. Value argued that the language of the execution warrant allowed for no discretion and mandated that Hobbs implement it. “

Nevertheless, “The Arizona Supreme Courtroom sided with Governor Hobbs.”

Because the legislation journal says:

The courtroom held that the execution warrant that it issued ‘licensed’ the Governor to proceed with the execution of Mr. Gunches. This authorization, nonetheless, didn’t rise to the extent of a command. The warrant gave the governor the authority to maneuver ahead with the demise penalty, however it didn’t comprise any binding language requiring the governor to take action.

Furthermore, quickly after she took workplace, Hobbs had introduced a pause in Arizona’s executions due to what she known as a “historical past of executions which have resulted in severe questions on [the state’s] execution protocols.” She additionally launched a Loss of life Penalty Unbiased Evaluate, led by retired Choose David Duncan.

On the time, Governor Hobbs mentioned that “Arizona has a historical past of mismanaged executions which have resulted in severe issues about ADCRR’s execution protocols and lack of transparency. That modifications now below my administration…. A complete and unbiased evaluate should be performed to make sure these issues aren’t repeated in future executions.”

Mitchell complained that the evaluate was continuing too slowly. “For practically two years,” Mitchell mentioned, “we’ve seen delay after delay from the governor and the lawyer normal. The commissioner’s report was anticipated on the finish of 2023, however it by no means arrived. In a letter acquired by my workplace three weeks in the past, I’m now informed the report is perhaps full in early 2025.”

Then, allying herself with the household of Gunches’s sufferer, she mentioned, “For nearly 22 years,” she mentioned, “Ted Value’s household has been ready for justice and closure. They’re not keen to attend any longer, and neither am I.”

Mitchell claims that as a result of “every county represents the state in felony prosecutions that happen in Arizona… I can also appropriately ask the Supreme Courtroom for a demise warrant. The victims have asserted their rights to finality and search this workplace’s help in defending their constitutional rights to a immediate and ultimate conclusion to this case.”

However even Mitchell is aware of that what she is doing has no foundation in legislation. On the time she filed her movement, she acknowledged that “it’s uncommon for a county lawyer to hunt a demise warrant.”

Uncommon is a light phrase for what Mitchell is attempting to do. It’s unprecedented and clearly unlawful.

Final week, Legal professional Basic Mayes responded to Mitchell’s ploy. She requested the state supreme courtroom to disregard Mitchell’s request. “The authority to request a warrant of execution … rests completely with the lawyer normal,” she informed the courtroom.

She mentioned Mitchell had gone “rogue” and reminded her that “there is just one Legal professional Basic at a time—and the voters determined who that was 18 months in the past.”

She known as out Mitchell for placing on a “cynical efficiency to look powerful in her aggressive re-election main,” and treating that political crucial as “extra vital…than following the legislation.”

“The form of habits engaged in by…County Legal professional Mitchell within the Gunches matter,” Mayes noticed, “not solely disrespects the authorized course of but additionally jeopardizes the working order of our system of justice.” If each county lawyer might search execution warrants, Mayes famous, it will “create chaos” in Arizona’s already troubled demise penalty system.

What’s going on in Arizona exhibits the lengths to which some supporters of capital punishment will go to maintain the equipment of demise working. And all of us, no matter our views of the demise penalty, might be effectively served if the state supreme courtroom delivers a decisive rebuke to Maricopa County’s harmful effort to take action.