Overview
- McGill was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, May 20, at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence and was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m., with prison officials and media witnesses saying the procedure followed ADCRR protocol.
- He was convicted in October 2004 for dousing Charles Perez and Nova Banta with gasoline and setting them on fire; Perez died and Banta survived with severe burns after jurors deliberated for less than an hour.
- McGill exhausted appeals, had a resentencing request rejected this spring, and waived his right to seek clemency before the execution moved forward.
- Arizona used a compounded form of pentobarbital administered in a two‑syringe process, a method critics say can risk complications such as pulmonary edema and that drew scrutiny after a flawed 2014 execution; any medical findings will depend on a pending autopsy.
- The execution was Arizona’s first of 2026 and part of a cluster of U.S. executions that week, leaving the state with about 108–109 people on death row and placing discretion over future death warrants with the attorney general.