Arizona Attorney General Announces State Ready to Resume Executions as Governor Hobbs Abruptly Ends Independent Review of Execution Protocols

On November 26, 2024, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced her office will resume seek­ing exe­cu­tion war­rants. AG Mayes’ announce­ment comes after Governor Katie Hobbs end­ed the state’s inde­pen­dent review of its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and process­es, dis­miss­ing retired fed­er­al mag­is­trate David Duncan before he had com­plet­ed his review. In a let­ter to Judge Duncan, Gov. Hobbs said his actions dur­ing the review went beyond his man­date. The review was launched in 2023, as new­ly elect­ed Gov. Hobbs issued a tem­po­rary pause on exe­cu­tions, in response to mul­ti­ple botched exe­cu­tions the previous year.

The AG’s deci­sion to resume seek­ing death war­rants, which has the sup­port of Gov. Hobbs, was pred­i­cat­ed on anoth­er review of exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols, this one by Director of Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR), Ryan Thornell. Director Thornell said ADCRR’s changes will include new train­ing require­ments, a new med­ical team, more thor­ough doc­u­men­ta­tion of the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, a short­er ​“death watch,” as well as changes to pro­cure­ment rules for lethal drugs. In a state­ment, AG Mayes said that she is ​“con­fi­dent that exe­cu­tions can now pro­ceed in com­pli­ance with state and federal law.” 

In May 2024, AG Mayes indi­cat­ed exe­cu­tions would resume by ear­ly 2025. In her November announce­ment she said, ​“In accor­dance with that time­line, I plan to move for­ward and request an exe­cu­tion war­rant from the Arizona Supreme Court in the com­ing weeks for Aaron Brian Gunches, who was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Ted Price.”

Judge Duncan asserts that he was dis­missed, and his inde­pen­dent review halt­ed, after he had inter­viewed the med­ical direc­tor respon­si­ble for the three botched exe­cu­tions in 2022, who told him that both the direc­tor and a para­medic par­tic­i­pat­ing the exe­cu­tions were paid $20,000 cash for each exe­cu­tion. Judge Duncan inquired into the tax sta­tus of these pay­ments, includ­ing request­ing records from the ADCRR, who did respond to his request. Gov. Hobbs denies this was the rea­son for Duncan’s dis­missal, and says she con­sid­ers that with the new ADCRR pro­to­cols, ​“ADCRR is pre­pared to con­duct an exe­cu­tion that com­plies with the legal require­ments if an exe­cu­tion war­rant is issued,” said Gov. Hobbs.

Among the new pro­to­cols that the ADCRR will be fol­low­ing, the exe­cu­tion staff will be aug­ment­ed by a new med­ical team that will include a phle­botomist, an expert in draw­ing blood, to pre­vent pre­vi­ous issues with botched IV-line inser­tions. The ADCRR review also not­ed that pre­vi­ous exe­cu­tions have seen ​“incon­sis­ten­cy” in deci­sion-mak­ing process­es and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the med­ical team, but going for­ward the ADCRR lead­er­ship ​“will not make deci­sions with­out the advice of the trained and qual­i­fied medical/​IV team.” Mr. Thornell also not­ed ADCRR will ful­ly com­ply with fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions to acquire pen­to­bar­bi­tal for exe­cu­tions, some­thing the depart­ment had failed to do in the past. In 2015, Arizona spent $27,000 to pro­cure 1,000 vials of sodi­um thiopen­tal to use in exe­cu­tions from a sup­pli­er in India, after domes­tic pro­duc­ers would not sell the drug for exe­cu­tions. The drugs were seized by the US Customs and Border Protection in Phoenix after the Federal Food and Drug Administration warned ADCRR that the pur­chase was illegal.