by The execution scheduled for next month of an Arizona prisoner remains on track after a judge denied his request for fingerprint and DNA evidence of the two 1980 murders he is facing. expected to execute it.
Murray Hooper’s lawyers said their client is innocent, that no physical evidence links him to the murders, and that the evidence could lead to the identification of those responsible. They say Hooper, scheduled to be executed on November 16 for the murders of William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, was sentenced in an era before computerized fingerprint systems and DNA evidence were available in criminal cases.
In a decision released Monday, Superior Court Judge Jennifer Green said the evidence implicating Hooper was overwhelming and it was not reasonably likely that Hooper would have escaped prosecution if such tests had been conducted and given favorable results. .
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The judge noted testimony from four witnesses against Hooper, including Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, who authorities say was shot in the head when Hooper and two other men forced their way into Redmond’s home on Dec. 1980.
Green said Marilyn Redmond, who survived the attack, was the only witness to see the intruders in the house and “was in close proximity to the defendant when he committed violent acts.”
Hooper’s legal team said it will appeal the ruling. “Her execution of him should not take place until these tests have been completed,” one of her lawyers, Kelly Culshaw, said in a statement.
Murray Hooper, above, is scheduled to be executed on November 16, 2022 for his convictions in the murders of Pat Redmond and Helen Phelps in Phoenix.
(Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry via AP, File)
Prosecutors had argued that even if someone else’s fingerprints or DNA were found, that would not overcome the overwhelming evidence against Hooper.
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Hooper’s attorneys say Marilyn Redmond’s description of the assailants changed several times before identifying her client, who claimed not to be in Arizona at the time.
Two other men, William Bracy and Edward McCall, were convicted of the murders but died before their death sentences could be carried out.
Authorities say Robert Cruz, who allegedly had ties to organized crime, hired Hooper, Bracy and McCall to kill Pat Redmond, who co-owned a printing business. They said Cruz wanted to take over the business and was unhappy that Redmond had turned down offers from him to enter into several printing deals with Las Vegas hotels, according to court records. In 1995, Cruz was acquitted of murder charges in both deaths.
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Hooper would be the third inmate executed this year after Arizona resumed executions in May, after a nearly eight-year hiatus blamed both on the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution was botched.
There are 111 inmates on Arizona’s death row and 22 have exhausted their appeals, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
