Two death-row prisoners have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to hold off on scheduling litigation over the warrants that would trigger the state’s first executions in almost seven years.
Lawyers for Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood said the pandemic has made it hard for them to prepare defenses for their clients due to a ban on visits inside state prisons over the last year. Earlier this month, prosecutors told the state’s highest court they intend to seek execution warrants for Dixon and Atwood now that Arizona has obtained a lethal injection drug and is prepared to resume executions. Clarence Dixon was sentenced to death for the 1978 sexual assault and murder of 21-year-old Deanna Bowdoin, a student at Arizona State University. Frank Atwood was given a death sentence for his conviction in the 1984 kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Vicki Hoskinson in Tucson.
