PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Tuesday his office wishes to proceed with executing another death row inmate.
Murray Hooper, 76, could be the third inmate put to death this year after Arizona recently resumed carrying out executions. The state hadn't executed anyone for about eight years before Clarence Dixon underwent lethal injection on May 11.
Hooper was one of three suspects convicted of killing two people at a Phoenix residence in 1980.
Hooper, William Bracy, and Edward McCall (a former Phoenix police officer) had invaded the home of Patrick Redmond as he and his family were preparing for a New Year's Eve party.
The trio held the family at gunpoint as they snatched jewelry and money from the residence. Redmond's throat was slashed, and his wife and mother-in-law were both shot in the head.
Redmond's wife survived the attack and identified Hooper, Bracy, and McCall as the assailants.
Redmond's death and its aftermath later served as the basis for a 1991 television miniseries called "False Arrest" starring Robert Wagner and Donna Mills.
The series focused on a woman who was accused of helping to orchestrate the 1980 killings.
Hooper is suspected of being a hitman from the Chicago area and was allegedly hired to kill Redmond on behalf of a local businessman.
Robert Charles Cruz, the defendant accused of hiring the trio to kill Redmond, was eventually acquitted after several appeals and mistrials. But Cruz later disappeared in the 1990s and his body was found a decade later buried in Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Authorities in Chicago say Cruz's body was buried near where two people connected to organized crime had been buried.
Hooper also has a criminal history in the Chicago area.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Hooper and two others were convicted of murdering three drug dealers in 1980.
Hooper is the last remaining defendant tied to Redmond's murder who is still alive.
According to the AG's office, Arizona currently has 111 inmates on death row.
