[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---ARIZONA

[Rick Halperin]

April 7



ARIZONA:

State begins warrant process to execute first inmate since 2000


The Arizona Supreme Court received a warrant for execution April 2 from
the Attorney General's Office for Robert Comer, who was sentenced to die
in 1988 for a violent crime spree at a campground near Apache Lake.

Comer was found guilty of 1st degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated
assault, and sexual assault, and sentenced by Maricopa County Superior
Court Ron Reinstein.

If the Arizona Supreme Court takes action on the warrant at a meeting
scheduled for April 17, Comer will become the 1st inmate to be executed in
Arizona since Don Miller. Miller's sentence was carried out on Nov. 8,
2000, for his role in the killing of a woman to help a friend escape child
support payments.

Under state law, the Arizona Supreme Court must issue a subsequent
execution warrant to the director of the Arizona Department of
Corrections. An inmate's execution occurs 35 days after corrections
officials receive the warrant.

Arizona has executed 86 inmates since 1910, 28 by hanging, 38 by lethal
gas, and 20 by lethal injection, which became practice in when voters
approved the method in 1992. There are 111 inmates on death row in the
state, according to the Department of Corrections.

Comer, dubbed Arizona's "most dangerous inmate," according to court
documents, prison officials and a court-appointed mental health expert,
was recently granted the power to end his appeals by a 14-1 decision by
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Comer has been cited for 43 disciplinary infractions while serving time in
Arizona, including 11 charges for possession and manufacturing of weapons.

He also served a sentence from 1979 to 1984 in California's Folsom Prison
for rape and kidnapping.

Comer is currently housed in the Special Management Unit II in Florence,
Arizona, a 23-hour-a-day lock down facility that houses Arizona's death
row inmates.

The warrant was signed by Assistant Attorney General John Pressley Todd
and defense attorney Barbara Lindsay.

(source: Arizona Capitol Times)