Latest news with #TedPrice
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Arizona's execution pitted experts against politicians. Experts lost
On Wednesday, 19 March, Arizona executed Aaron Gunches by lethal injection. As ABC News reports, he was put to death for 'kidnapping and killing 40-year-old Ted Price by shooting him four times in the Arizona desert'. Gunches's case was unusual in many ways, not least that he stopped his legal appeals and volunteered to be executed, then changed his mind before changing it again. His execution was scheduled to be carried out almost two years ago. It was put on hold when the Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs, commissioned an independent review of the state's death penalty procedures after a series of botched executions. But over the last several months, she pushed hard to make sure Gunches died for his crime. She even fired the expert retired Judge David Duncan who she had chosen to do that review, before he could complete his report. Her decision to let Duncan go was shocking. At the time, she offered the following explanation: 'Your review has, unfortunately, faced repeated challenges, and I no longer have confidence that I will receive a report from you that will accomplish the purpose and goals of the Executive Order that I issued nearly two years ago.' The governor also noted that the department of corrections, rehabilitation & reentry had conduct 'a comprehensive review of prior executions and has made significant revisions to its policies and procedures'. But doubt about whether she could rely on a review conducted by the group which is in charge of the state's executions in why she appointed Duncan in the first place. That is why I suspect that Hobbs tossed Duncan aside because she didn't like the facts he was finding or the conclusions he seemed to be reaching. Facts are stubborn things, but, in our era, they can be tossed aside with little political cost and no regret. Why rely on expertise if it gets in the way of achieving a result you want to reach? Still, Hobbs's unprecedented decision to 'kill the messenger' was another low moment for a society increasing living by a line uttered by a newspaper editor in the classic movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.' In the world of capital punishment, the 'legend' to which politicians like Hobbs are attached is that it can make America a safer and more just place. They want us to believe that they embrace the death penalty to bring closure to family members of murder victims rather than to accrue political capital. Note what Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes said during a news conference following the execution: 'An execution is the most serious action that the state takes, and I assure you that it is not taken lightly. Today, Arizona resumed the death penalty, and justice for Ted Price and his family was finally served.' After Gunches's death, the sister of the man he murdered echoed that sentiment. Karen Price called the execution 'the final chapter in a process that has spanned nearly 23 years'. Ted Price's daughter added that Gunches's death means that she will no longer have to revisit 'the circumstances surrounding my father's death' as she had to for over two decades of seemingly endless legal proceedings. 'Today,' she said, 'marks the end of that painful chapter, and I couldn't be more grateful'. That chapter would not have ended if Governor Hobbs had been willing to listen to her own expert. Before being sacked, Judge Duncan prepared a draft of his report and wrote a letter to the governor's office previewing his conclusions. He called lethal injection an unreliable method of execution and said: 'Drug manufacturers don't allow states to use the appropriate drugs.' Duncan had spent nearly two years reviewing Arizona's use of lethal injections. As he explained, 'Early on, I thought lethal injection would work. The more I learned about it I learned that that was a false hope.' Duncan told the governor that, in his view, using lethal injection was too risky. In his view, the best course would be for Arizona to adopt the firing squad because 'it has the lowest botch rate.' That was not the news Hobbs hoped her expert would deliver, so she let Duncan go. It seems he just didn't understand that she wanted him to ease the way toward a resumption of lethal injection executions rather than suggesting that the state should not execute anyone until it could adopt what he considered to be a better method. And Duncan was not the only one raising questions about Arizona's resumption of lethal injection executions. Last January, law professor Corinna Lain, a leading expert on lethal injection, said: 'The evidence is overwhelming that Arizona cannot lawfully carry out an execution by lethal injection at this time. Its pentobarbital protocol is sure or very likely to cause a tortuous death even in the best of circumstances.' She went on to say: 'The circumstances here are far from optimal. The State is on the cusp of using an inexperienced, untrained team to inject likely expired drugs stored in unmarked mason jars that were produced by a company that does not make drugs for human consumption and that will be compounded by a pharmacy that the … (the state) itself has previously disavowed.' Disregarding expert knowledge is very much in fashion in many areas of American life, not just where the death penalty is concerned. The Atlantic's Tom Nichols explains that 'Trump allies make noises about expert failures … [and] demonize what its constituents believe was the medical establishment's attempt to curtail civil rights during the coronavirus pandemic.' He argues that Elon Musk's attack on civil servants is really an attack on the 'very notion of apolitical expertise.' But, as Nichols explains, such doubt is not confined to Washington DC. It is found in the 'homes of ordinary American families'. There, 'knowledge of every kind is also under attack. Parents argue with their child's doctor over the safety of vaccines. Famous athletes speculate that the world might actually be flat. College administrators ponder dropping algebra from the curriculum because students keep failing it.' So, it is not surprising that the attack on knowledge would infect decisions about how to end the lives of people condemned to death. Political leaders – including Democrats like Hobbs – know they can play into the burgeoning culture of disrespect for what experts have to say, so they dispense with Duncan and ignore Lain. The more publicly they display that disrespect, the more politically they can benefit. It wasn't always this way when decisions had to be made about methods of execution. At the end of the 19th century, before New York decided to abandon hanging, the state convened a commission to consider and recommend alternatives. That commission sought out the best minds to help them make their decision. It chose the electric chair. The decision whether electrocution 'would be by Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC)' was informed by a competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, both pioneers in the development of electricity. That was then. Today, as the Arizona example shows, such expertise does not govern the choice of execution methods. In the wake of the Gunches execution, Governor Hobbs and the 'down with experts crowd' may feel vindicated because nothing seemed to have gone awry. But they should not rest easy, and neither should any of the 112 inmates on Arizona's death row. Studies have shown that lethal injection has the worst track record of any method of execution used in the last century in this country. That is why it is only a matter of time before an execution in Arizona proves the folly of ignoring experts and the insights they offer.
CBS News
19-03-2025
- CBS News
Arizona executes man by lethal injection for 2002 murder
A 53-year-old man convicted of murder was put to death by lethal injection in Arizona on Wednesday in the first execution in the southwestern U.S. state in more than two years. Aaron Gunches, who had dropped legal efforts to halt his execution, was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend's ex-husband. "Justice for Ted Price and his family was finally served," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told reporters following the execution at a state prison in Florence, Arizona. Media witnesses said Gunches was placed on a gurney in the death chamber and restraints were put on his arms and legs. Asked if he had any last words, Gunches shook his head to say no. Intravenous lines were then inserted into his arms and Gunches breathed heavily several times after the drugs began to flow, the witnesses said. He lost consciousness and his chest stopped moving several minutes later. Gunches was the first prisoner put to death in Arizona since November 2022. Problems with administering lethal injections in previous executions led to a suspension of capital punishments while a review was conducted. John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said Gunches's execution went as planned. "By all accounts, the process went according to plan without any incident at all," Barcello told reporters. Gunches was executed one day after a 46-year-old man convicted of rape and murder was put to death by nitrogen gas in the southern state of Louisiana. Jessie Hoffman, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Molly Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive, was the first person executed in Louisiana in 15 years. Nitrogen gas has been used just four other times to execute a person in the United States — all in Alabama , the only other state with a protocol for the method, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate. Hoffman's attorneys sought to stop the execution saying in court filings the method is unconstitutional, violating the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The state's attorney general said at least four people are expected to be executed this year. The next execution is scheduled to take place in Oklahoma on March 20, and there are 11 remaining executions scheduled for 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Boston Globe
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
An Arizona prisoner whose execution is coming up isn't asking for a reprieve
He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on March 19 for his murder conviction in the 2002 shooting death of Ted Price, his girlfriend's ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. Gunches, who isn't a lawyer but is representing himself, made an unsuccessful bid late last year to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities were aiming for. His death sentence was 'long overdue,' Gunches told Arizona's highest court, which rejected the request. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a Feb. 20 filing, Gunches said he didn't want to be present at Monday's hearing and noted he made a brief virtual appearance earlier before the board to confirm a clemency waiver he made in 2022. Advertisement 'My position has not changed,' Gunches wrote in the recent filing. The Arizona Supreme Court issued a death warrant for Gunches nearly two years ago, but the sentence wasn't carried out because the state's Democratic attorney general agreed not to pursue executions during a review of the state's death penalty protocol. The review ended in November when Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs dismissed the retired federal magistrate judge she had appointed to examine execution procedures. Arizona, which has 112 prisoners on death row, last carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining drugs for execution. Since then, the state has been criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a condemned prisoner. One significant change made by corrections officials was forming a new, larger team to insert IVs into condemned prisoners after the state had been criticized for taking too long to insert IVs into prisoners. The Arizona Legislature is considering a proposal aimed at changing the state's method of execution. If approved by lawmakers, the proposal would ask voters in 2026 to replace lethal injection with a firing squad. Advertisement Currently, Arizona death row prisoners whose crimes occurred before Nov. 23, 1992, can choose between lethal injection or the gas chamber, which was refurbished in late 2020 since it was last used for an execution in 1999. Under current law, those who decline to make the choice or whose crimes occurred after the November 1992 date are to be executed by lethal injection. The proposed ballot measure would keep lethal gas as one of Arizona's two execution methods for those whose crimes occurred before the 1992 date.
Bloomberg
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
Insomniac Games Founder Explains Why He's Retiring After 31 Years
Ted Price, who founded and ran the company behind Spider-Man, says he's confident that the studio will retain its unique culture
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Insomniac Boss Says Resistance 4 Was The One That Got Away
The Resistance games were never among Sony's most popular franchises but they still have a special place in some players' hearts, especially those who remained ride-or-die through the tough early days of the PlayStation 3. And while 2011's Resistance 3 capped off the alternate sci-fi history about a WWII-style fight against alien invaders in the 1950s in a mostly satisfying fashion, die-hard fans have always pined for a sequel. Insomniac Games founder Ted Price recently said the studio wanted to make one too, but Sony wasn't onboard. 'We did pitch that one and it was a wonderful concept, and it just, in terms of timing and market opportunity, didn't work out,' the outgoing studio head said when talking about the unmade Resistance 4 in a new interview with Kinda Funny Games. The comments were made in the context of a conversation about how many games get cancelled or never even greenlit that people don't hear about. '[The pitch] was the result of a lot of Insomniac team members being passionate about extending the story further, because I do believe that Resistance has set up a really cool alternate history base where anything can happen with the Chimera and where they go and what their origins are,' Price said. While the Resistance games generally sold well, Price's mention of 'market opportunity' could be a reference to The Last of Us,which came out a few years after Resistance 3 in 2013. Sacred Symbols host Colin Moriarty previously reported that Sony was worried about overloading its portfolio with post-apocalyptic games, and declined to greenlight Resistance 4 because 'it sounded too similar to The Last of Us and they didn't want the two games overlapping with each other.' But that doesn't mean Resistance can't come back again in the future. While Price, who directed the first two Resistance games, is leaving the studio, Sony now owns the IP and, assuming Insomniac remains busy with its endless slate of upcoming Marvel spin-offs, could potentially farm it out to another studio, either internally or outside of PlayStation. Price seems hopeful that, one way or another, the series might still come back someday. 'Resistance 3 was intended to end that chapter of the Resistance franchise with the way that we ended with [recurring protagonist Joseph] Capelli and closed a lot of loops on various story items, and we wanted to do that so we would have more options in the future whether we were to go ahead with more Resistance games or take another turn,' Price said this week. 'When you work on a franchise for a long time, it's nice to have a chance to move on to something else and at the same time it's also nice to be able to come back to it. Fortunately, because we're part of Sony and Sony owns the intellectual property to Resistance, we will always have that opportunity to revisit Resistance and if it works out again, as a fan I'm going to be pretty excited.' At this point, many fans would probably settle for a simple remaster of the existing trilogy for modern platforms. Since the games released on PS3, the only way to play them on PS5 remains through cloud streaming as part of the PlayStation Plus Premium subscription tier. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
