On November 27, Arizona's Democratic Attorney General announced He has requested a death warrant in the case of Aaron Ganchis and plans to resume executions after a two-year hiatus. “My office has been preparing for the resumption of executions in Arizona since the beginning of this year,” said Chris Mays. “In May I suggested that executions would resume by early 2025.”
The attorney general's plan is a mistake and a politically motivated calculation in a closely divided state where Democrats must be careful not to hurt Republican and independent votes. But the fact of the matter remains the same. Arizona's death penalty is no more reliable or fair today than it was in 2022.
And what is true in Arizona is true everywhere the death penalty exists in this country.
Before taking a closer look at Arizona's death penalty mistakes, we should remember that Arizona did the following: There is a long history of capital punishmentcharacterized by frequently starting and stopping dating Until the period before admission to the Union.
1910, Arizona began the execution at the newly built Florence State Penitentiary. Jose Lopez He was the first person to be executed by hanging in Florence..
Six years later, voters Passed a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty. Just two years later, voters reversed course and executions resumed.
Another chapter in the history of Arizona's death penalty occurred between 1962 and 1992, when no executions were carried out. In total, 143 people have been put to death in the state's history.
arizona There were also a number of failures in executions.. In 1930, Eva Dugan was hanged and beheaded by the state. 2014, Joseph Woodgiven In another botched execution, a two-drug combination was administered 15 times over two hours.
8 years later, Arizona Failed to execute Clarence Dixon. The enforcement team “failed to place an IV line in Mr. Dixon's arm for 25 minutes, then performed an unauthorized 'cut-down' procedure by inserting the IV using a vein in his groin.”
In addition to these disastrous failures, Arizona has also struggled to obtain the drugs needed for executions. Even that tried to import Those products from suppliers that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, this is the law. prohibited by federal law.
Those issues guided Mays and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. To halt executions in January 2023, soon after they took office. The governor ordered a review of the death penalty system, saying it “needs better oversight on many fronts.”
As NPR reported At the time, the review aimed to “examine, among other things, the state's procurement processes for lethal injection drugs and lethal gases, execution procedures, media access to executions, and the training of personnel who carry out executions.” Then Hobbes Appointment of retired judge David Duncan As an independent examiner of the death penalty, ordered him to make recommendations Regarding “improving transparency, accountability, and safety of the execution process.”
However, rather than specifying the method, To eliminate lethal injection incidents in ArizonaDuncan I wrote He told the governor that he recommended that the state “begin using firing squads” because the needed drugs were not reliably available.
Apparently the governor I didn't like what Duncan said, so I fired him. to him before he officially released the report. Explaining her decision, she argued that he “significantly departed from her directive to 'focus on procurement, protocols and procedures related to executions under current law.'”
Mr. Mays, by contrast, is eager to get Arizona back into the death penalty business. She assured Grand Canyon State residents that “we have worked with ADCRR throughout the process to carefully review and improve our state's death penalty procedures,” adding, “Currently, state and federal laws “We will be able to proceed with the execution in accordance with the rules,” he said.
Hobbes followed suit. her publicist said He said he was “'committed to continuing to uphold the law while ensuring that justice is administered in a transparent and humane manner.'” We are reviewing the policy and making important improvements to ensure its implementation.” Meeting legal and constitutional standards by the state. ”
This is the classic “I'm just following the law” excuse, which is familiar but empty. Remember when Vice President Harris was California's attorney general? explained using the same excuse Why was she defending existing death sentences in the state, even though she claimed to be against the death penalty?
Hobbs himself exposed this travesty last year. In response to a lawsuit filed by the victim's family seeking an order directing Ganchis' execution to proceed, Hobbs said she and the attorney general have no legal right to seek a death warrant or carry out an execution in any case. He pointed out that there was no obligation.
Arizona Supreme Court agreed. The agency determined that “the death warrant it issued gave the governor 'authority' to proceed with Mr. Gancz's execution. However, this authority did not rise to the level of a command.” The decision to reopen is entirely up to the governor and attorney general.
Both are up for re-election in 2026. Elected by a narrow margin in 2022.
The death penalty will resume next year That's one way for them to walk It's a “fine line” running as a Democrat in pro-Trump border states where Republicans have an advantage in voter registration.
But they have done little to address the problems plaguing the state's death penalty system. said Laura Conover, an attorney for Arizona's second-largest county. label “As our false accusations team knows all too well, the failed system has proven to be racially biased, subjective, and dangerous.”
And like Judge Duncan explainlethal injection is nothing like “…what happens when (someone) puts their beloved pet to sleep.” …The American Medical Association's Code of Ethics states that “physicians may not participate in legally authorized executions,'' so the best medical personnel to carry out this task are close to the area. I'm not allowed to do that. ”
Duncan rightly stated, “The world of enforcement…is so secretive that best practices never emerge, mistakes are never shared, lessons are never learned, and they are never shared with others.” I am. All of this, he argues, “creates errors and flawed practices that impede lethal injection.”
That's why it would be a grave mistake for Arizona to restart the death machine while other states persist with the death penalty. It is not too late for Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Mays to reverse course and save the states they serve from crisis. That would send a message to the nation that there is no political calculation that justifies maintaining America's flawed death penalty system.
austin surrattWilliam Nelson Cromwell is a professor of law and political science at Amherst College. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Amherst College.
