Plans to execute an Arizona man on Wednesday remain on track after a judge refused to postpone the lethal injection, rejecting a bid to allow fingerprint and DNA testing on evidence from two 1980s killings that led to the inmate's death sentence.
Lawyers for Murray Hooper said their client is innocent, that no physical evidence ties him to the killings of William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, and that testing could lead to identifying those responsible. They say Hooper was convicted in an era before computerized fingerprint systems and DNA testing were available in criminal cases.
