Capital punishment in Arizona

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. After the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, executions were temporarily suspended but resumed in 2022.^[1]^[2] On January 23, 2023, newly inaugurated governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and in light of that, newly inaugurated attorney general Kris Mayes issued a hold on any executions in the state.^[3]

Legal process

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a retrial happens before another jury. If the second jury is also deadlocked, a life sentence is issued.^[4]

The Governor of Arizona can grant clemency only with advice and consent of the five-member Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.^[5]

Capital crimes

Certain aggravating circumstances constitute capital murder in the State of Arizona:^[6]

prior conviction for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable;
prior serious offense involving the use of threat or violence;
grave risk of death to others;
procurement of murder by payment or promise of payment;
commission of murder for pecuniary gain;
murder committed in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner;
murder committed while in custody;
multiple homicides;
murder of a victim under 15 years of age or of a victim 70 years of age or older; and
murder of a law enforcement officer.

Executions and death row

Arizona's death row for males is located at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence in Florence. Female death row prisoners are housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville in Goodyear.

Since capital punishment was resumed in 1976, 40 people in Arizona were convicted of murder and have been executed at Florence State Prison in Florence, Arizona.^[7]

Since 1992, Arizona has employed lethal injection for its executions.^[8] It previously executed prisoners with inhalation of cyanide gas, but passed a statue changing to lethal injection after the controversial and much-publicized execution of Donald Eugene Harding, who took 10 and 1/2 minutes to die.^[9] However, inmates convicted for capital crimes committed prior to November 23, 1992 may choose gas inhalation instead.^[10]^[11]

In 2011, the state was found to be lawfully buying execution drugs from Dream Pharma, a pharmaceutical company operating out of a driving school in west London, UK.^[12]

The 2014 execution of Joseph Wood was similarly controversial, taking nearly two hours and leading to a moratorium of executions until July 2019, when Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged the governor to "act without delay" in helping the state obtain execution drugs.^[11] In October of that year, Arizona's department of corrections paid $1.5m to a confidential source for 1,000 1g vials of pentobarbital sodium salt, a sedative used in the state's executions. U.S. doctors are not permitted to prescribe the drug for executions, as taking a life does not serve a therapeutic purpose, so Arizona has to find suppliers willing to sell drugs without prescription.^[13]

Arizona would next execute Clarence Wayne Dixon, on May 11, 2022.^[14]