Photo: Kenneth W. Thompson. Photo: Courtesy Arizona Department of Correction
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the convictions and sentences of a death row inmate who himself was killed in his prison cell last month.
Criminal prosecutions normally stop upon a defendant’s death, but the court said it ruled on an appeal for Kenneth Wayne Thompson II even after his death because resolving issues in the case would help in future cases.
Thompson, 38, was found dead at a Florence prison complex last month.
Thompson, who lived in the Ozarks region of Missouri, was convicted in 2019 of using a hatchet and a knife to kill his sister-in-law, Penelope Edwards, and her boyfriend, Troy Dunn, in Yavapai County in 2012. He then poured acid on the bodies and set their house on fire.
Thompson’s appeal issues included the basis for a vehicle search, questioning of prospective jurors and constitutionality of Arizona’s first-degree felony murder law, which the justices upheld.
Thompson was convicted of premeditated murder and felony murder in both killings as well as burglary and arson.
The Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry is investigating the killing of Thompson, and the Pinal County Attorney’s Office is awaiting the department’s findings and charging recommendations, office spokesman Mike Pelton said. “We are going to prosecute.”
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