The Arizona Supreme Court has granted the State’s Motion for Execution Warrant for Mr. Atwood. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection or lethal gas on June 8.
What’s New
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously voted to deny commutation or reprieve to Clarence Dixon. Read the Arizona Republic’s reporting
ABC15 in Phoenix offers additional coverage of the Arizona Supreme Court’s order denying the Attorney General’s request to modify the briefing schedule on their planned motion for execution warrants for Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood. Read the article here.
The Arizona Supreme Court has denied the State’s request to modify the briefing schedule for its motions for execution warrants in the cases of Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood. The court also vacated the briefing schedule and ordered that the state may renew its request after it completes specialized testing of the compounded pentobarbital. Media coverage is below.
https://www.kold.com/2021/07/12/arizona-supreme-court-state-cant-rush-execution-long-standing-death-row-inmates/
July 12, 2021
Arizona authorities ask to expedite 2 executions, citing shelf life of lethal injection drug
Jimmy Jenkins reports on the Arizona Attorney General’s request to modify the briefing schedule on its requests to obtain execution warrants for Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood. The request comes because the AG’s office previously stated that, once compounded, the pentobarbital it intends to use to carry out lethal injections has a shelf-life of 90 days. The AG now concedes that the shelf-life is only 45 days. Read the article and see related documents and pleadings here.
Attorney Jim Belanger has published an op-ed in the Arizona Republic regarding his experience witnessing his client’s execution by lethal gas. Read the opinion piece here.
The New York Times and others, including Al Jazeera and CBS News report on Arizona’s plan to use hydrogen cyanide to execute death row inmates. The reports note that Arizona’s lethal gas protocol does not allow for the use of hydrogen cyanide, a gas used by the Nazis to kill more than a million prisoners at Auschwitz, including 865,000 Jewish prisoners.
