On April 21, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejected an appeal from a Tucson man sentenced to death for killing police officer Patrick Hardesty in 2003.
John Montenegro Cruz was sentenced to death by Pima County Superior Court Judge Ted B. Borek in May of 2005 for killing Hardesty, who was shot multiple times at point-blank range.
Hardesty, together with Officer Benjamin Waters, was investigating a hit-and-run accident that led the police to an apartment occupied by Cruz. Cruz gave officers a false name before escaping from the complex on foot, prompting Hardesty to chase him.
Cruz’s appeal included almost two dozen claims, the first challenging a trial court judge’s refusal to grant a change of venue for the well-publicized murder trial.
The court rejected the argument, relying on case law requiring that media coverage would have to be “so extensive or outrageous that it permeated the proceedings or created a ‘carnival-like atmosphere.’”
The court noted that it upheld the 1990 death sentence of Flagstaff child rapist and murderer Richard Bible, despite “similarly pervasive and even more inflammatory pretrial publicity.”
Cruz’s appellate attorney also claimed the trial court erred by allowing a “visibly intoxicated” woman to testify, but the Arizona Supreme Court noted Cruz’s trial attorney withdrew his objections to the testimony and that the woman’s responses were “somewhat rambling” but “coherent.”
The Supreme Court also rejected Cruz’s claim that the “shock belt” he was forced to wear impeded his ability to consult with his attorney during his trial. The trial court judge was made aware of several reports that indicated a possible escape attempt by Cruz, according to the high court’s ruling.
Executions in the United States were largely suspended last year to await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Baze v. Kentucky, a challenge to the lethal-injection procedure filed by two condemned Kentucky inmates.
Stateline.org reports 13 stays on pending executions were granted in 2007. One of which was Jeffrey Landrigan, whom the Arizona Supreme Court scheduled to die on Nov. 1, 2007.
On April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Kentucky inmates in a move that signaled the commonly used three-drug lethal injection procedure is constitutional and does not violate protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard praised the ruling for affirming that Arizona’s lethal-injection procedures are “humane” and allowing the state to “proceed and administer justice.”
According to Goddard’s office, Landrigan will be allowed to file an additional legal brief reflecting the Baze decision before an execution will be rescheduled. The process could take months.
In 1989, Landrigan killed a male lover in Phoenix after escaping from an Oklahoma prison where he was serving sentences for a 1982 murder and a prison stabbing.
There was only one killer put to death in Arizona last year. Robert Comer was put to death last May for a 1987 murder at a campground near Apache Lake.?