(The Center Square) – Franklin Arnett Clifton was sentenced this week to death after being convicted of killing a woman in a drive-by shooting in Phoenix, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records obtained this week by The Center Square.
In addition to the murder charge, Clifton, 39, was convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping combined with sexual assault of another woman during the same shooting. For those convictions, he received two concurrent 23-year sentences, according to the court’s order of confinement. The order was issued on Thursday, the same day as the death penalty verdict.
Clifton was convicted of a deadly shooting that happened on Oct. 17, 2014, in the area of Campbell and 27th avenue in Phoenix. According to investigators, Clifton drove by on a motorcycle and shot two women he argued with during the previous week. One woman died from the gunshot, and Clifton was convicted of attempted murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of the other woman.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry said there are 109 death row inmates in the state. Three of them are women.
Some inmates have been on death row since the 1990s.
The department’s website said the six inmates executed since 2013 spent an average of 25.56 years on death row before their execution. All executions happen at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. Male inmates on death row are incarcerated at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson. Female inmates are at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville, near Goodyear.
