An Arizona man who requested his own death warrant was executed Wednesday by lethal injection.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m. at a state prison in Florence. He was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital and shook his head when asked if he had any last words.
Gunches had pleaded guilty to the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his then-girlfriend’s ex-husband, in a desert area outside Phoenix. He repeatedly rejected help from legal counsel and represented himself at his death penalty trial, where he provided no defense.
“This seems like you’re committing suicide by jury,” a Maricopa County judge said at a 2013 hearing.
Beginning in 2018, Gunches repeatedly wrote to Arizona authorities asking for his execution to be carried out. In 2022, he requested his death warrant from the state’s top court, saying it would give closure to Price’s family.
His execution had originally been scheduled for April 2023, but was postponed after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the state’s death penalty process.
Gunches was the first person to be executed in a state with a Democratic governor since 2017, when Virginia killed two men under then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Gunches was the second of four people scheduled to be executed across the U.S. this week. On Tuesday in Louisiana, Jessie Hoffman Jr. was killed with nitrogen gas, a first for the southern state.
On Thursday, Wendell Grissom is scheduled for death in Oklahoma, while Edward James is set for execution in Florida. Both men will die by lethal injection.