An Arizona death row inmate has asked the state Supreme Court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than officials were planning.

Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, had previously pushed for the state to carry out his execution for his conviction in the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, for which he had pleaded guilty. He is set to be put to death by lethal injection.

Grunches’ execution would be Arizona’s first use of the death penalty since a two-year pause to review execution procedures.

In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches, who is not a lawyer but is representing himself, urged the state’s high court to schedule his execution for mid-February.

FILE: The gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Arizona has 111 inmates on death row, but last carried out death sentences in 2022, when three inmates were put to death, after a nearly eight-year pause sparked by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.

The state has since faced criticism for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a death row inmate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.