Prosecutors have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to call off a hearing to determine the mental competency of a man set to be executed.
They told the state’s highest court that the May 3 mental competency hearing scheduled in Pinal County for Clarence Dixon is likely to delay his May 11 execution.
Dixon is set to the first prisoner to be executed in the state of Arizona in nearly eight years.
He was convicted for killing a 21-year-old Arizona State University student in 1977.
The prosecutors are seeking to throw out the lower court’s order that concluded defense lawyers had shown reasonable grounds for planning a hearing over Dixon’s psychological fitness.