Execution set for Arizona man convicted of killing an 8-year-old girl

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - The Arizona prisoner convicted in the 1984 killing of an 8-year-old girl is scheduled to be executed Wednesday in what would be the state’s second execution since officials started carrying out the death penalty in May after a nearly eight-year hiatus.

66-year-old Frank Atwood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for his murder conviction in the killing of Vicki Hoskinson, whose body was found in the desert.

She went missing months earlier after leaving her home in Tucson to drop a birthday card in a nearby mailbox.

If the execution isn’t halted by court action, Atwood will be the second Arizona prisoner to be put to death in less than a month.

The execution of Clarence Dixon last month ended Arizona’s halt to executions that was blamed on the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs.