Arizona set to execute a man who killed 4 members of a Phoenix family in 1993
PHOENIX — PHOENIX (AP) — A man who was convicted of killing four members of a Phoenix family more than 30 years ago as an act of revenge is scheduled to be put to death Friday in what is expected to be Arizona’s second execution of the year.
Richard Kenneth Djerf, 55, is expected to die from pentobarbital injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.
He pleaded guilty to murder for the deaths of couple Albert Luna Sr. and Patricia Luna; their daughter Rochelle Luna, 18; and their son Damien Luna, 5, at their home on September 14, 1993. Djerf, who has been in prison for more than 29 years, chose not to ask for mercy.
If the execution takes place, it will be the fourth in the country this week and the 39th of the year.
Prosecutors said Djerf placed blame for an earlier theft of electronics from his apartment on another family member, Albert Luna Jr., who did not witness the killings. Djerf became obsessed with revenge and went to his home months later pretending to deliver flowers, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Djerf sexually assaulted Rochelle Luna and slit her throat; beat Albert Luna Sr. with an aluminum baseball bat, stabbed and shot him; and tied Patricia and Damien Luna to kitchen chairs before shooting them. During Friday’s execution, a team of four people, including doctors and a phlebotomist, will prepare syringes of saline and pentobarbital, insert an IV and inject the chemicals into Djerf. Arizona has been criticized in the past for taking too long to insert IVs during lethal injection executions. Experts say there should be seven to ten minutes between the start of insertion and the proclamation of death. The state has suspended executions twice since 2014, due to concerns over the use of the death penalty.
There was a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties obtaining needed drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution had been botched: Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, causing him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.
Executions resumed in 2022 and three prisoners were put to death that year. They were suspended again in 2023 after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the death penalty protocol and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes agreed not to pursue any. The review ended in November 2024, when Hobbs fired a retired federal magistrate she had appointed to review execution procedures, and the state Corrections Department announced changes to the lethal injection team.
Arizona last carried out a death sentence in mid-March, executing Aaron Brian Gunches for the 2002 murder of Ted Price.
There are currently 108 prisoners on the state’s death row.
