The Arizona Supreme Court on April 17 issued a warrant for the execution of Robert Comer, who has fought for years to end his federal appeals process and to receive the death penalty.
The state high court met the same morning to review a death warrant sent by the Attorney General’s Office on April 2.
Comer will be executed on May 22 by lethal injection unless he elects to receive the gas chamber, according to Arizona Supreme Court.
In 1988, he was convicted and sentenced to death by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Ronald Reinstein for the 1987 slaying of camper Larry Pritchard and the rape of a woman near Apache Lake.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 15 issued a 14-1 en banc opinion allowing Comer to end his appeals process and proceed to execution.
That ruling followed a September decision reached by 2-1 majority of a 9th Circuit panel to overturn his death sentence, ruling he was not entitled to end his appeals process because they deemed his 1988 sentencing unconstitutional.
At the sentencing before Maricopa County Judge Ronald Reinstein, Comer was rolled into court in a wheelchair, bruised, and nearly naked following a dramatic fight with guards.
According to reports, Comer was armed with a large “shank” and barricaded his door and set fire to a mattress in his cell. Under state law, Comer was required to be present for sentencing.
The Arizona Supreme Court denied Comer’s direct appeal in 1990, and rejected a post-conviction review in September 1993.
On April 4, 1994, the U. S. Supreme Court declined to hear Comer’s appeal, and in July of the same year Comer filed his habeas corpus appeals process with the U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
Comer, who is housed in a maximum security unit in Florence, has written judges, attorneys, and officials for years declaring his intention to end his appeals process. A letter sent in 2000 to an assistant attorney general, blasted attorneys seeking to reverse his sentence as anti-death penalty “fanatics” that have purposefully portrayed him as “delusional” and “mentally challenged.”
U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver found Comer competent to waive his appeals process in 2002.
Attorney Michael Kimerer, who was appointed in 2000 to help Comer prove his competence in order to waive his appeals process, said his client regarded the latest 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion affirming his death sentence as a “victory.”
Arizona has not executed an inmate since Nov. 8, 2000, when Don Miller received a lethal injection for his role in the murder of a woman to help a friend escape child support payments.