Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025

Death row inmate Murray Hooper executed despite ‘no evidence against him’

A Death Row prisoner convicted of a double murder in 1980 has been executed by lethal injection – despite an almost complete lack of evidence against him.

Murray Hooper was one of three alleged “contract killers” convicted of carrying out a mob hit in Phoenix, Arizona on the evening of December 31, 1980.

Hooper, along with co-defendants William Bracy and former police officer Edward McCall, was alleged to have killed Patrick Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps.

READ: Death row inmate set for execution by lethal injection 40 years after double murder

Prosecutors said the three men had tied the victims up and gagged them before shooting them in the head and slashing Redmond's throat.

A third victim, Mr Redmond’s wife Marilyn, survived the apparent home invasion and, according to prosecutors, identified Hooper from a photo line-up.

However, Marilyn had told police at the time that she was unable to identify the killers because she had been “afraid to look at them.”

It later emerged that Marilyn was never even shown the photos. The Arizona Supreme Court said earlier this week that the claim about a photo lineup “has no evidentiary support and no basis in fact.”

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Hooper’s lawyers say that Marilyn’s description of the attackers changed several times before she identified their client, who maintained he was not in Arizona at the time of the murders.

Marilyn later identified Hooper in an in-person lineup and testified against him at his trial.

Hooper was convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court in 1982. The trial came to an end before computerised fingerprint systems or DNA testing were introduced for criminal cases.

"For 40 years, Mr. Hooper has maintained that he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, based on corrupt police practices and unreliable witness testimony," assistant federal public defender Kelly Culshaw told The Arizona Republic.

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The two other defendants, Bracy and McCall, were also convicted but died before their death sentences could be carried out

Prosecutors alleged Hooper and two other men were hired by a Chicago crime organisation to murder Redmond to gain control of Mr Redmond printing business.

The man alleged to have ordered the killings, Robert Cruz was acquitted of charges relating to both deaths in 1995.

Hooper, who was 76, died at the Arizona State Prison Complex, Florence at around 10.34am local time,

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According to Arizona Department of Corrections Deputy Director Frank Strada, Arizona executed Hooper 34 minutes late due to difficulties inserting IVs into him.

A witness said Hooper's last words were, "It's all been said, let it be done. Don't be sad for me. Don't cry. I'll see you later, lets go."

Arizona had stopped carrying out the death penalty after the 2014 execution of Joseph Wood, who had to be given 15 doses of a lethal drug combination over nearly two hours in an execution that was described as “botched”.

But the executions began again this year, with the deaths of Clarence Dixon, who was blind and in declining health, in May and then Frank Atwood in June.

Arizona has 111 people on death row, 22 of whom have exhausted their appeals, according to the state attorney general's office, but no other executions are currently scheduled.

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