Arizona executed Leroy Dean McGill on Wednesday for the murder of Charles Perez, applying lethal injection in a procedure state officials described as free of the difficulties that drew scrutiny in 2022. McGill was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. inside the state prison complex in Florence, the first Arizona inmate put to death this year and the first of three executions scheduled across the United States in an eight-day window.
McGill was convicted in the July 13, 2002 killing of Charles Perez, who was attacked alongside his girlfriend in a north Phoenix apartment. According to court records, McGill threw gasoline on Perez and ignited it, causing fatal burns.
During the execution, a single dose of pentobarbital was administered after the IV team inserted lines into each of McGill’s arms, succeeding on the first attempt each time. That outcome contrasted with Arizona’s 2022 executions, when corrections staff struggled for extended periods to place IV lines, delaying procedures and prolonging the process. McGill did not appear to resist at any point during the procedure, the Associated Press reported. After the drug began flowing, McGill breathed heavily and made a snoring sound, and was pronounced dead approximately 21 minutes after the IV insertion process began.
The Arizona Supreme Court had issued a warrant in March scheduling McGill’s execution for May 20. The case moved forward without the last-minute legal interventions that often accompany capital cases in their final days. McGill’s death was the first Arizona execution of 2026 and the third nationally this year. Two further executions — in Florida and another state — were expected to follow within the week.