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A man convicted of murdering four members surprise A family bent on revenge more than 30 years ago will be put to death Friday in Arizona’s second execution this year.
Richard Kenneth Zerff, 55, is about to die by pentobarbital injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex. florence,
He pleaded guilty to murder in the deaths of couple Albert Luna Sr. and Patricia Luna; his daughter Rochelle Luna, 18; and 5-year-old son Damien Luna at their home on September 14, 1993. Gerf, who has been in prison for more than 29 years, decided not to ask for clemency.
If hanged, it will be the fourth hanging in the country this week and the 39th of the year.
Prosecutors said Gerf blamed another family member, Albert Luna Jr., who did not witness the murders, for a previous theft of electronics from his apartment. Prosecutors said Zerff became obsessed with revenge and visited the home months later, claiming to have delivered flowers.
Authorities say Gerf sexually assaulted Rochelle Luna and slit her throat; Albert Luna Sr. was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat, stabbed and shot; and tied Patricia and Damien Luna to kitchen chairs before fatally shooting them. During Friday’s execution, a team of four people, including medical doctors and a phlebotomist, would prepare syringes of saline and pentobarbital, insert an IV and inject the chemicals into Jerf. Arizona has been criticized in the past for taking too long to insert an IV during the execution of a lethal injection. experts Assume that it should take seven to 10 minutes from the beginning of the insertion to the declaration of death. The state has halted executions twice since 2014 amid concerns over the use of the death penalty.
There was a gap of nearly eight years due to difficulties in obtaining the necessary drugs and criticism that the 2014 execution was botched: Joseph Wood was given 15 doses of a combination of two drugs over two hours, causing him to repeatedly snore and gasp hundreds of times before dying.
Executions resumed in 2022 and three prisoners were executed that year. After this they were stopped again in 2023 democratic Governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and Democratic Attorney General Chris Mayes agreed not to proceed with any executions.
The review ended in November 2024, when Hobbs fired a retired federal magistrate whom he had appointed to investigate execution procedures, and the state Department of Corrections announced changes to the lethal injection team.
Arizona last carried out a death sentence in mid-March, executing Aaron Brian Guanches for the 2002 murder of Ted Price.
There are currently 108 prisoners on death row in the state.
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Billeaud reported from Phoenix.