An Arizona death row prisoner asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities were aiming for, pushing as he had in the past to have his death sentence carried out.
Aaron Brian Gunches’ execution would mark a resumption of Arizona’s use of the death penalty after a two-year pause while it reviewed its procedures.
In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price. He had filed a similar motion in November 2022 asking the court to issue a death warrant for him, saying he wanted justice to “be lawfully served and give closure to the victim’s family.”
He withdrew that motion in January 2023 , citing three recent executions he said were “carried out in a manner that amounts to torture.”
In his most recent filing, Gunches, who isn’t a lawyer but is representing himself, said his death sentence is “long overdue” and that the state was dragging its feet in asking the court for a legal briefing schedule leading up to the execution.