FLORENCE, Ariz.—A man convicted in the 1980 killings of two people was scheduled to die Wednesday in what would be Arizona’s third execution since it started carrying out the death penalty in May after a nearly eight-year hiatus.
Murray Hooper, 76, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for his murder convictions in the killings of William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps.
Authorities say the killings were carried out at the behest of a man who wanted to take over Redmond’s printing business.
The courts rebuffed attempts by Hooper’s lawyers to postpone the execution and order fingerprint and DNA testing on evidence from the killings….