The Arizona Supreme Court on Sept. 25 issued a warrant for execution for convicted murderer Jeffrey Landrigan, who is set to become the second state inmate to be executed this year.
In 1989, Landrigan, strangled and stabbed a male lover in Phoenix after escaping from an Oklahoma prison where he was serving sentences for a 1982 murder and a 1986 prison stabbing.
Barring further legal interruptions, the court’s ruling gives Landrigan, 47, the choice of having his sentence carried out in the gas chamber or by lethal injection on Nov. 1.
Comer executed in May
In May, the state executed Robert Comer for a 1987 murder and rape spree near Apache Lake. In 2000, the California native moved to fire his federal appeals attorneys in an effort to proceed with his execution.
In Comer’s case, last minute appeals from anti-death penalty organizations to the Arizona Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency were rejected. Amnesty International criticized his execution as “state-assisted suicide.”
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled Landrigan was not entitled to a hearing to address his claim that his trial court lawyer did not present mitigating evidence that could have spared him a death sentence.
Attorney defends effort
But his attorney, according to court documents and news reports, unsuccessfully tried to persuade Landrigan to allow his mother and ex-wife to testify about his drug addiction and his mother’s abuse of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy.
His appeals attorney, Dale Baich, said he would pursue litigation to stop the execution but declined further elaboration.
On Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a constitutional challenge against lethal injection presented on behalf of two Kentucky death row inmates.
Kent Cattani, chief of the attorney general’s capital litigation section, said he does not expect the U.S. Supreme Court filing to derail Landrigan’s execution.