Who Is Aaron Gunches? Death Row Inmate Katie Hobbs Refuses to Execute

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs' efforts to halt the death penalty in her state mean a scheduled execution on Thursday is unlikely to go ahead.

The Democratic governor has been ordered, along with the state's prisons director Ryan Thornell, to appear in court to defend their refusal to execute Aaron Gunches.

The afternoon court appearance is scheduled for the same day Gunches had been set to die by lethal injection.

He was condemned for the 2002 killing of his girlfriend's ex-husband, Ted Price, near Mesa. He pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the shooting death.

Gunches represented himself in November when he asked the Arizona Supreme Court to issue his execution warrant. He withdrew the request in early January.

The state Supreme Court rejected newly elected Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes' request for the warrant to be withdrawn, saying it must grant an execution warrant if certain appellate proceedings have concluded.

In a recent filing, Gunches changed course again, saying he wants to be executed. He asked to be transferred to Texas where, he wrote: "the law is still followed and inmates can still get their sentences carried out." The court denied the request.

And it more recently concluded that state law didn't require Hobbs to proceed with Gunches' planned execution, though it wasn't officially canceled.

On Friday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz said Hobbs and Thornell must explain why the court should not issue an order against them on the grounds they are violating the constitutional rights of victims entitled to prompt justice, The Associated Press reported.

Price's sister, Karen Price, has urged the court to order Hobbs to let to execution happen.

Newsweek has contacted Hobbs' office and the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry for comment via email. Colleen Clase, an attorney representing Karen Price, has also been contacted for comment.

Hobbs has pledged that no inmates will be put to death in Arizona until there is confidence that the state is not violating constitutional rights when carrying out executions.

She appointed David Duncan, a retired federal magistrate judge, in February to examine Arizona's procurement of lethal injection drugs and other death penalty protocols due to the state's history of mismanaging executions.

Hobbs last month said the state Supreme Court's decision "affirms our position, and allows the Arizona Department of Corrections to ensure any execution conducted under this administration will be done lawfully and humanely.

"Being adequately staffed and prepared to carry out an execution is an urgent and critical duty [the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry] is tasked with, and the Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner should complete his work before the state proceeds in carrying out the gravest of penalties."

Lawyers for Hobbs have said the corrections department lacks staff with proper expertise and does not have a current contract for a pharmacist to compound the pentobarbital needed for an execution.

Some of the requirements for carrying out an execution have not been met in Gunches' case, the AP reported.

The corrections department said the warrant of execution issued by the state Supreme Court was not read to Gunches, and he was not moved to a special "death watch" cell to be monitored around the clock prior to his execution.

Arizona carried out three executions last year, following an almost eight-year pause prompted by the botched 2014 execution of Joseph Wood and difficulties securing lethal drugs.

Last year, the state faced criticism for taking too long to insert an IV for Clarence Dixon's lethal injection and for denying the Arizona Republic's request to witness the executions.

Arizona has 109 inmates on death row, according to the corrections department.