phoenix — PHOENIX (AP) — A man convicted of killing four members of a Phoenix family more than 30 years ago as an act of revenge is scheduled to be executed Friday in what is scheduled to be Arizona. Second implementation this year.
Richard Kenneth Gerff, 55, is scheduled to die of a pentobarbital injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of married couple Albert Luna Sr. and Patricia Luna; their daughter, Rochelle Luna, 18; and his son, Damian Luna, 5, at their home on September 14, 1993. Al-Jarf, who had been in prison for more than 29 years, chose not to seek pardon.
If it is implemented, it will be Fourth nationwide this week And 39 of the year.
Al-Jarf blamed another family member, Albert Luna Jr., who did not witness the killings, for stealing electronic devices from his apartment earlier, prosecutors said. Al-Jarf became obsessed with revenge and went home months later claiming to be delivering flowers, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Al-Jarf sexually assaulted Rochelle Luna and cut her throat. Albert Luna Sr. beat, stabbed, and shot him with an aluminum baseball bat; They tied Patricia and Damian Luna to kitchen chairs before shooting and killing them. During Friday’s execution, a four-person team, including doctors and an phlebotomist, will prepare syringes of saline and pentobarbital, insert an IV and inject chemicals into the cliff. Arizona has been criticized in the past for taking too long to insert IVs during lethal injection executions. Experts say it should take between seven and ten minutes from the start of admission until death is announced. The country has halted executions twice since 2014 amid concerns about its use of the death penalty.
There was a gap of almost eight years due to difficulties in obtaining the necessary drugs and criticism that the 2014 execution was a botched: Joseph Wood was injected with a chemical. 15 doses A combination of two drugs over the course of two hours, causing him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.
Executions resumed in 2022, and Three prisoners were executed That year. It was paused again in 2023 after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the death penalty protocol and Democratic Attorney General Chris Mayes agreed not to pursue any. The review ended in November 2024, when Hobbs fired a retired federal judge she had appointed to examine enforcement procedures, and the state Department of Corrections announced changes to its lethal injection team.
The state of Arizona carried out the last death sentence in mid-March. Execution of Aaron Brian Janchez For the murder of Ted Price in 2002.
There are currently 108 inmates on death row in the state.