Arizona: Aaron Gunches executed – he had fought for the execution of his sentence

On Wednesday morning, 53-year-old Aaron Gunches was executed with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital, in the US state of Arizona. It was the first execution in the USA since 2017 to be carried out in a US state with a Democratic governor at the helm.

Gunches was sentenced to death for killing the ex-partner of his then-girlfriend in November 2002. He had already admitted to the crime many years ago, represented himself in court for long stretches and fought for and demanded his execution. He did this so consistently that a judge said of him that his case was a case of “suicide by justice”, which is what Gunches was committing.

It was the first execution in Arizona since three death sentences by lethal injection were carried out in 2022, which caused problems with the placement of the intravenous lines, each requiring almost half an hour and various attempts on different parts of the body. After that, Governor Katie Hobbs put a stop to executions in Arizona for the time being.

There were also no executions in the US state between 2014 and 2022, after it had taken two hours and 15 repeat injections to kill Joseph Wood with midazolam and hydromorphone in the summer of 2014 – a combination that specialists consider to be completely unsuitable.

According to eyewitnesses, there were no problems with the execution of Aaron Gunches this time. As the media reported in advance, the execution team, which consists of prison staff because doctors are not allowed to take part in the execution process, was assisted by a “phlebotomist”. This is effectively a “blood collector”, a medical assistant who is trained to draw blood.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/19/aaron-gunches-execution-arizona/82470889007/