On Friday, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office filed in the Arizona Supreme Court a motion to withdraw a motion previously filed by the State for a warrant of execution of Aaron Brian Gunches.
Gunches ended up on death row for fatally shot his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Price, in 2002. In 2003, Gunches was pulled over by the Arizona Department of Public Safety near the California border and shot a trooper twice. The trooper survived and bullet casings from the shooting scene matched the ones found near Price’s body. Gunches then pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing Price and to the attempted murder of the DPS trooper.
According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, it “requested the warrant of execution only after and because Mr. Gunches initiated the now-pending proceedings with his own motion requesting execution on November 25, 2022. In a January 4, 2023 filing, Mr. Gunches reversed his decision and requested his motion be withdrawn.”
“My predecessor’s administration sought a warrant of execution for Mr. Gunches after he initiated the proceedings himself. These circumstances have now changed. However, that is not the only reason I am now requesting the previous motion be withdrawn,” said Attorney General Kris Mayes. “A thorough review of Arizona’s protocols and processes governing capital punishment is needed. I applaud Governor Hobbs for establishing a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner to begin that process.”
Arizona resumed executions in 2022 after an eight-year pause was triggered by the botched execution of Joseph Wood.