PHOENIX (AP) — A prisoner scheduled to be executed next week in what would be Arizona’s first use of the death penalty in over two years has passed up a chance to ask for a reprieve from his death sentence.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, did not participate in a hearing Monday before the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, which noted on the record that he has waived his right to ask for a sentence commutation or a reprieve. There was no public comment during the minutes-long hearing.
Gunches is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on March 19 for his murder conviction in the 2002 shooting death of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa…