The Brief

- Aaron Gunches, a man who is set to be executed on March 19 for his role in a murder case decades ago, has reportedly passed on a chance to ask for reprieve from the death penalty.

According to the Associated Press, Gunches did not participate in a hearing Monday before the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.

Per an agenda posted on the board's website for its March 10 meeting, the board received a signed waiver of hearing from Gunches. In their article, the AP said the board noted, on the record, that Gunches waived his right to ask for a sentence commutation or a reprieve. There was no public comment during the minutes-long hearing.

Prosecutors said Gunches fatally shot his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Price, in 2002. The victim’s body was later found in a desert area.

Gunches was pulled over by the Arizona Department of Public Safety near the California border in 2003 and shot a trooper twice, according to authorities. The trooper survived thanks to a bulletproof vest and bullet casings from the shooting scene matched the ones found near Price’s body.

As for Gunches, he ultimately pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing Price and to the attempted murder of the DPS trooper, and was originally sentenced to death in 2008. In 2010, however, the Arizona Supreme Court found an error in the sentencing proceeding, and remanded Gunches’ case for new sentencing. He was sentenced to death again in 2013.

Gunches' execution has been at the center of legal drama in recent years.

In November 2022, Gunches filed a request for his own death warrant with the state's Supreme Court, but he later withdrew that request , stating that he did not know that Mayes, who won election for Arizona Attorney General that same month, had stated her intentions of "pausing" executions in Arizona.

After she took office as Attorney General, Mayes tried to withdraw a request for Gunches' death warrant that was filed by her predecessor, Mark Brnovich. The court, however, refused the request. While a death warrant was ultimately granted, Governor Katie Hobbs said her administration would not carry out an execution , and a review of the state’s death penalty protocol was conducted.

The review ended in November when Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs dismissed the retired federal magistrate judge she had appointed to examine execution procedures.