Stop the Execution of Murray Hooper in Arizona

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey

Murray Hooper Execution Petition

Murray Hooper is scheduled for execution in Arizona on November 16, 2022 for his alleged 1980 murders of Patrick Redmond and Helen Phelps. Murray Hooper has always maintained his innocence. The following information is provided by our allies at Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona (Click for more).

Murray Hooper is 76 years old and has served nearly 40 years on death row for a crime he has maintained for the last 40 years he did not commit.

His conviction resulted from a series of corrupt practices engaged in by police, lawyers, and witnesses in both Chicago and Phoenix. Murray was convicted with no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the scene of the crime, and despite his alibi that he was home in Chicago when this crime occurred.

Murray’s case involved unreliable eyewitness identification by informants and co-conspirators who received extraordinary benefits from the State in exchange for their testimonies, including immunity, money, drugs, and unsupervised trips away from jail for conjugal visits.

Murray is believed to be mistakenly identified by a victim, who survived being shot in the head during the commission of the crime. The victim after initially proclaiming that they could not identify any assailants, two months later was flown to Chicago to view a lineup conducted by Chicago detectives in a department known to physically and mentally torture people into making false confessions and false accusations against other suspects.

Investigations have also revealed that detectives obtained wrongful identifications of accused persons through coercion and inappropriate, suggestive interrogation techniques.

The identification of Murray was inherently unreliable. The victims account of the evening changed substantially over time, including descriptions of the race of the assailants, whether the victims observed the suspects, or whether they were wearing masks.

The unreliability of the testimony implicating Murray calls his conviction into question because there is no physical or forensic proof he was at the scene of the crime, or even in the State of Arizona at the time. Yet items from the crime scene still exist and forensic testing for fingerprints and DNA can now be tested with modern technology. As many as twelve fingerprints were found at the crime scene. Only one fingerprint was identified; a print that belonged to a victim.

This presents a unique and compelling opportunity to finally discover the actual perpetrators of the crime. Murray has always maintained that he was not present, as his alibi witnesses testified at trial.

In a decision released Monday, October 24th, 2022, Superior Court Judge Jennifer Green rejected Murray’s request to have fingerprint and DNA tests conducted on evidence for which he’s scheduled to be executed.

A Warrant of Execution was issued by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in August 26th, 2022 (Warrant of Execution, State v. Hooper, No. CR-83-0044-AP). On October 12th the Arizona Supreme Court granted the state's motion to move forward with the execution that has been scheduled for November 16th, 2022.

Arizona has a history of botched executions - it has made horrendous errors in many of its executions over the last several years. To continuing to schedule executions while the majority of states have abandoned the death penalty in either law or practice is in direct opposition to the evolving standards of decency in our country.

We are calling on the Governor to issue a stay and grant clemency by commuting his death sentence to life in prison.

Sponsored by

To: Arizona Governor Doug Ducey
From: [Your Name]

We are writing to ask that you to stop the November 16, 2022 execution of Murray Hooper for his alleged 1980 murders of Patrick Redmond and Helen Phelps.
Murray Hooper is 76 years old and has served nearly 40 years on death row for a crime he has maintained for the last 40 years he did not commit.

His conviction resulted from a series of corrupt practices engaged in by police, lawyers, and witnesses in both Chicago and Phoenix. Murray was convicted with no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the scene of the crime, and despite his alibi that he was home in Chicago when this crime occurred.

Murray’s case involved unreliable eyewitness identification by informants and co-conspirators who received extraordinary benefits from the State in exchange for their testimonies, including immunity, money, drugs, and unsupervised trips away from jail for conjugal visits.

Murray is believed to be mistakenly identified by a victim, who survived being shot in the head during the commission of the crime. The victim after initially proclaiming that they could not identify any assailants, two months later was flown to Chicago to view a lineup conducted by Chicago detectives in a department known to physically and mentally torture people into making false confessions and false accusations against other suspects.

Investigations have also revealed that detectives obtained wrongful identifications of accused persons through coercion and inappropriate, suggestive interrogation techniques.

The identification of Murray was inherently unreliable. The victims account of the evening changed substantially over time, including descriptions of the race of the assailants, whether the victims observed the suspects, or whether they were wearing masks.

The unreliability of the testimony implicating Murray calls his conviction into question because there is no physical or forensic proof he was at the scene of the crime, or even in the State of Arizona at the time. Yet items from the crime scene still exist and forensic testing for fingerprints and DNA can now be tested with modern technology. As many as twelve fingerprints were found at the crime scene. Only one fingerprint was identified; a print that belonged to a victim.

This presents a unique and compelling opportunity to finally discover the actual perpetrators of the crime. Murray has always maintained that he was not present, as his alibi witnesses testified at trial.

Further, we are concerned that while the vast majority of states with capital punishment continue on a downward trend of executions, Arizona is moving against this trend by carrying on an aggressive execution schedule in 2022.

We are also concerned that Arizona has a history of botched executions - having made horrendous errors in four executions in recent history.

We, the undersigned, ask that you do everything within your power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Thank you for time and attention to this urgent and serious matter.