FLORENCE, Ariz. — A man who has been convicted of murdering two people in 1980 was executed Wednesday.
According to The Associated Press, Murray Hooper, 76, died by lethal injection at a state prison in Florence. It’s Arizona’s third execution since officials started to carry out the death penalty in May after about an eight-year hiatus.
Hooper was convicted of murdering William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1980, according to the AP. Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, was shot in the head but survived. She testified in his trial.
According to the AP, officials said that the killings happened at the direction of someone who wanted to reportedly take over Redmond’s printing business.
Officials said that Hooper and two other men had forced their way into the Redmond house on Dec. 31, 1980, according to the AP. William Redmond, Helen Phelps and Marilyn Redmond were bound, gagged, robbed and then shot in the head.
William Bracy and Edward McCall, the two other men involved, were convicted in the murders but both died before their death sentences were carried out, the AP said.
Before his execution, Hooper reportedly laughed a few times while interacting with the execution team, according to the AP. He also said a few words once the execution warrant was read out loud.
“It’s all been said. Let it be done,” Hooper said, according to the AP.
Frank Strada, deputy direct or the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, announced Hooper’s death, according to the AP.
The execution process took about 20 minutes from the time the team members walked into the room until an IV line was placed in his right leg and right forearm to when the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, according to the AP.
According to the AP, the team members earlier unsuccessfully attempted to insert a line in his right arm but ended up inserting the IV line through his femoral artery.
Hours before his execution, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal over claims that authorities had withheld that Marilyn Redmond failed to identify him in a photo lineup until recently, according to the AP. It was reportedly based on a mistake a prosecutor made in a letter to the clemency board but now said that no lineup was shown to her. However, she later identified him in an in-person lineup.
Arizona now has 110 people on death row, according to the AP.