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Arizona prisoner Frank Atwood won't be executed in gas chamber

The Arizona Supreme Court has signed a warrant of execution for convicted murderer Frank Atwood. Atwood would be the second inmate killed since the state resumed executions. Clarence Dixon is scheduled to be the first and is scheduled to be executed on May 11.

Frank Atwood murdered 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson in September 1984. Atwood had been convicted in California of lewd and lascivious acts and kidnapping, committed at separate times against two different children. In May 1984, he was paroled from the kidnapping sentence. Atwood came to Tucson in September 1984 in violation of his California parole. On September 17, 1984, Vicki Lynne was riding her bicycle home after mailing a birthday card to her aunt when Atwood kidnapped and killed her. Atwood left her body in the desert and fled to Texas, where he was later arrested. A hiker found Vicki’s body in the Tucson desert in April 1985.

By: Associated Press , KGUN 9 News Staff

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona prisoner Frank Atwood is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 8 for killing an 8-year-old girl.

Atwood is the second death-row prisoner to decline lethal gas since the state refurbished its gas chamber. Gas chamber executions haven't been used in the United States in more than 20 years.

Atwood declined to pick a method of execution when officials asked him if he wanted to die by lethal injection or the gas chamber.

Lethal injection is Arizona’s default execution method when prisoners refuse to make a selection.

Atwood was sentenced to die for his murder conviction in the 1984 killing of Vicki Hoskinson.

Paint stuck to Atwood's car helped convict him of Vicki's kidnapping and murder. Atwood had been free from a child molestation conviction in California where he forced an eight year old boy off his bicycle and forced him into a sex act.

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