Capital punishment in Arizona

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. After the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, executions were temporarily suspended but resumed in 2022. On January 23, 2023, newly inaugurated governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and in light of that, newly inaugurated attorney general Kris Mayes issued a hold on any executions in the state.

Legal process
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a retrial happens before another jury. If the second jury is also deadlocked, a life sentence is issued.

The Governor of Arizona can grant clemency only with advice and consent of the five-member Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.

Capital crimes
Certain aggravating circumstances constitute capital murder in the State of Arizona:


 * 1) prior conviction for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable;
 * 2) prior serious offense involving the use of threat or violence;
 * 3) grave risk of death to others;
 * 4) procurement of murder by payment or promise of payment;
 * 5) commission of murder for pecuniary gain;
 * 6) murder committed in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner;
 * 7) murder committed while in custody;
 * 8) multiple homicides;
 * 9) murder of a victim under 15 years of age or of a victim 70 years of age or older; and
 * 10) murder of a law enforcement officer.

Executions and death row
Arizona's death row for males is located at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence in Florence. Female death row prisoners are housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville in Goodyear.

Since capital punishment was resumed in 1976, 40 people in Arizona were convicted of murder and have been executed at Florence State Prison in Florence, Arizona.

Since 1992, Arizona has employed lethal injection for its executions. It previously executed prisoners with inhalation of cyanide gas, but passed a statute changing to lethal injection after the controversial and much-publicized execution of Donald Eugene Harding, who took 10 and 1/2 minutes to die. However, inmates convicted for capital crimes committed prior to November 23, 1992 may choose gas inhalation instead.

In 2011, the state was found to be lawfully buying execution drugs from Dream Pharma, a pharmaceutical company operating out of a driving school in west London, UK.

The 2014 execution of Joseph Wood was similarly controversial, taking nearly two hours and leading to a moratorium of executions until July 2019, when Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged the governor to "act without delay" in helping the state obtain execution drugs. In October of that year, Arizona's department of corrections paid $1.5m to a confidential source for 1,000 1g vials of pentobarbital sodium salt, a sedative used in the state's executions. U.S. doctors are not permitted to prescribe the drug for executions, as taking a life does not serve a therapeutic purpose, so Arizona has to find suppliers willing to sell drugs without prescription.

Arizona would next execute Clarence Wayne Dixon, on May 11, 2022.