Entries tagged with “David Duncan”

Jan 21, 2026

New Autopsy Report Renews Concerns about Arizona’s Execution Protocol

An autop­sy of Richard Djerf, who was exe­cut­ed in Arizona in October 2025, has renewed con­cerns about the state’s lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and the state’s efforts to address long­stand­ing exe­cu­­tion-relat­ed con­cerns. Mr. Djerf was con­vict­ed for the September 1993 mur­ders of four mem­bers of the Luna fam­i­ly in Phoenix. The autop­sy, con­duct­ed by Pinal County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Hu, estab­lished for the first time that med­ical personnel encountered…

Executions

Religion

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Mar 24, 2025

Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were exe­cut­ed in four dif­fer­ent states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first exe­cut­ed in their state in years. While the close tim­ing of the exe­cu­tions result­ed from inde­pen­dent state-lev­­el deci­sions and indi­vid­u­al­ized legal devel­op­ments rather than any coor­di­nat­ed nation­al effort, all four exe­cu­tions raised seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al con­cerns. ### March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On…

Methods of Execution

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Jan 23, 2025

Arizona’s Handling of Lethal Injection Drugs Raises Transparency and Viability Concerns

According to inves­tiga­tive report­ing from the AZ Mirror, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry (ADCRR) is stor­ing the state’s sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal salt, the active ingre­di­ent used in a com­pound­ed form in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions, in eight unmarked glass con­tain­ers in a prison refrig­er­a­tor, rais­ing doubts about the drugs’ authen­tic­i­ty and effi­ca­cy. ADCRR has refused to reveal how long it has been in pos­ses­sion of these…

Botched Executions

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Upcoming Executions

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Jan 07, 2025

Aaron Gunches Asks for February Execution Date, Raising New Concerns About Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol and the Execution of ​“Volunteers”

No jury has ever learned about Aaron Gunches’ life his­to­ry and expe­ri­ences, noth­ing about his child­hood, men­tal and phys­i­cal health, or trau­ma — the mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence that the Supreme Court has said is essen­tial to a con­sti­tu­tion­al death sen­tence. Arizona courts judged Mr. Gunches com­pe­tent to rep­re­sent him­self in two sep­a­rate tri­als for the mur­der of his ex-girlfriend’s hus­band, and he pre­sent­ed no defense in either pro­ceed­ing. Jurors twice sentenced him…