Prosecutors in Arizona are seeking to execute a prisoner in what would mark the state’s first use of the death penalty after a two-year pause. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to issue a warrant for the execution of Aaron Brian Gunches, who pleaded guilty to murder in 2007.
The court had issued a death warrant for Gunches nearly two years ago, but the sentence wasn’t carried out because the state's Democratic attorney general agreed not to pursue executions during a review of the state’s death penalty protocol.
