FLORENCE, AZ — Arizona has executed Richard Kenneth Djerf for the 1993 murders of four people at a Phoenix home.
Djerf was executed at 10:40 a.m. Friday by lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex - Florence.
Djerf pleaded guilty to four counts of murder for the killings of Albert Luna Sr., his wife Patricia, their 18-year-old daughter Rochelle, and their 5-year-old son Damien.
WATCH: Officials and media witnesses hold a post-execution news conference
“Those four innocent victims deserve justice, and their loved ones deserve closure,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office sought the execution.
According to the media witness, it took some time for the technicians to find a suitable vein to inject Djerf with the concoction. From the time it was injected, it took about six minutes until he was pronounced dead at 10:40 a.m.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell issued the following statement just prior to the execution on Friday:
“There are some crimes so unspeakable, so devoid of humanity, that justice demands the ultimate punishment. This is that case. Richard Djerf is a prime example of why the death penalty exists. What this man did in 1993, torturing and murdering nearly an entire family, was pure evil. Today was a day of final justice—not only for the memory of the four innocent lives he took, but also for the only surviving son and the extended Luna family, who have carried the weight of that loss every single day. May this bring them some measure of finality.”
Earlier this year, Djerf, in a handwritten note, reiterated he wasn’t going to seek relief from the state’s clemency board. “If I can’t find reason to spare my life, what reason would anyone else have?” he wrote. “I hope my death brings some measure of peace.”
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which sought the warrant for Djerf’s execution, declined to comment on the statement.
Djerf's execution will be Arizona’s second use of the death penalty this year. In March, Aaron Brian Gunches was executed for the 2002 killing of Ted Price.
Prosecutors say Djerf blamed another Luna family member, Albert Luna Jr., for an earlier theft of home electronic items at his apartment, became obsessed with revenge and months later entered the home under a ruse in which he claimed to be delivering flowers.
Authorities say Djerf sexually assaulted Rochelle and slashed her throat; beat Albert Luna Sr. with an aluminum baseball bat before stabbing and shooting him; and tied Patricia Luna and Damien to kitchen chairs before fatally shooting them.
In his written statement, Djerf said Albert Jr. was an innocent victim who came home to discover what Djerf had done to his family. “No part of what I did to his family, or why, was ever his fault,” Djerf wrote.
Arizona currently has 108 prisoners on death row.
The state also carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining drugs for execution. In the 2014 execution, Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.
