The Arizona Capital Representation Project is a non-profit legal service organization that assists indigent persons facing the death penalty in Arizona through direct representation, consulting services, training and education. The Project receives no government funding and relies on the support of your generous donations.
Today, President Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/23/fact-sheet-president-biden-commutes-the-sentences-of-37-individuals-on-death-row/
PHOENIX — He was fired last month by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
But David Duncan told Capitol Media Services he still intends to complete his report about what he has learned about the execution process in Arizona — and make it public
Duncan said there are several conclusions from the research he already had done that he believes need to be shared. And it starts with the one method for legally executing inmates in Arizona that he was asked to review.
State and national organizations gathered at the state capitol imploring Governor Katie Hobbs to commit to the completion of the final report reviewing Arizona’s execution process for death row inmates before those executions resume.
Critics are swinging back, saying the state is not prepared to follow through, and are demanding accountability.
Arizona has a complicated history with the death penalty, including a botched execution in 2014 which caused condemned prisoner Joseph Wood to gasp for two hours before dying from a lethal injection.
Executions are set to resume in Arizona, and days after being dismissed from a death penalty review by Governor Katie Hobbs, a retired judge is telling his side of the story.
Austin Sarat writes at Slate about three executions over the span of two days–November 16 and 17–were badly botched. In Murray Hooper’s execution, the team could not access a peripheral vein and resorted to accessing his femoral vein in his groin. Arizona law prevents the defense team or the public from learning the identities of the execution team members, who routinely struggle to access peripheral veins, or determining whether they have adequate training.
Jimmy Jenkins of the Arizona Republic also writes about the botched executions and Arizona’s “veneer of medicalization” on lethal injection.
