PHOENIX — An Arizona death row inmate convicted of murdering two teen-age girls in Cochise County two decades ago is a step closer to being executed.
A federal appeals court panel’s 2-1 ruling Thursday night denies Richard Dale Stokley’s request for a hearing on his claim that he received ineffective legal representation early in the appeals process.
Stokley is scheduled to be executed Dec. 5 for the 1991 killings of two 13-year-old girls who were raped and strangled.
Stokley was convicted in the July 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of Ruth Marie Meyers and Mary Raylene Snyder. The teens went missing from a camp-out in Elfrida in southwestern Cochise County. Authorities say the girls’ bodies were later dumped down a water-filled mine shaft.
Stokley was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992.
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Stokley's friend, Randy Brazeal, was convicted of second-degree murder in the killings. He was released from prison last year.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to reconsider the panel’s ruling and that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is also possible, a current lawyer for Stokley says.
Stokley has already said he won’t ask a state board for clemency because such a request would be futile.
