Page 15 - Robert Olson News Today

By Brendan OBrien

By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - An Arizona judge has ruled that a death row inmate convicted of killing a university student in 1978 failed to prove he...

By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - An Arizona judge has ruled that a death row inmate convicted of killing a university student in 1978 failed to prove he...

A Pinal County Superior Court judge ruled Clarence Dixon mentally fit to be executed in his conviction of killing an ASU student in 1978.

In a ruling signed shortly before midnight Tuesday and released on May 4, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Robert Olson rejected an argument from defense lawyers that Clarence Dixon’s psychological problems prevent him from rationally understanding why the state wants to end his life.

Judge Robert Olson rejected an argument from defense lawyers that Clarence Dixon's psychological problems prevent him from rationally understanding why the state wants to end his life.

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Arizona prisoner convicted in the 1978 killing of a university student is mentally fit to be put to death next week, keeping on track what would be the first execution in the state in nearly eight years.

The last execution in Arizona was in 2014, when Joseph Wood ​was given a two-drug combination over two hours in an execution that his lawyers said was botched.

Arizona is set to resume the death penalty in the case of Clarence Dixon, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and convicted of murder.

An Arizona prisoner man convicted of the 1978 murder of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin can be executed next week, a judge announced Wednesday, the state’s first in almost eight years.