PHOENIX — Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has dropped her bid to have the Supreme Court declare she has as much right as the attorney general to seek an execution warrant.
The decision doesn’t resolve the legal issue, but defers it for another day. “We’re absolutely not conceding,’’ Mitchell told Capitol Media Services Tuesday.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell
Mitchell had asked the high court to set briefings to begin the process of getting an order to execute convicted killer Aaron Gunches, who has exhausted all of his appeals.
That request was filed in June, during the time Attorney General Kris Mayes was declining to move ahead on seeking the warrant. Mayes wanted to wait for a final report from a special commissioner hired by Gov. Katie Hobbs to review the process, after some executions Hobbs said were “botched.”
Hobbs dismissed the commissioner last month, saying she is satisfied with a report by the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry that it can properly conduct executions without the problems that have occurred in the past.
Based on that, Mayes has now filed the paperwork with the Supreme Court to start the process meant to put Gunches to death early next year.
In new legal filings, Mitchell told the high court that Mayes is doing what she wanted in the first place. That makes the issue legally moot, the county attorney said.
“We’re simply saying our object has been met,’’ Mitchell said, in that Mayes is pursuing a warrant to execute Gunches. “But we’re not saying that Kris has exclusive jurisdiction.’’
Mayes, in her own legal filings earlier this year, insisted she has the sole right to seek execution warrants. Mayes said the Legislature designed the attorney general as the “chief legal officer of the state.’’
Mitchell never disputed Mayes’ authority to seek an execution warrant, but insisted she also has that authority.
There are 111 people on death row, 25, including Gunches, who have exhausted their appeals.
