Photo courtesy Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry: The Arizona Supreme Court has issued an execution warrant for Frank Jarvis Atwood, 66, who was found guilty of the 1984 murder of Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, 8, of Tucson.
Child killer set to be executed June 8
By Jon Johnson
PHOENIX – On Tuesday, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry posted a release advising the Arizona Supreme Court has issued an execution warrant for Frank Jarvis Atwood, 66.
Atwood has been on death row since 1987 for the 1984 kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, of Tucson. Vicki was kidnapped by Atwood as she rode her bicycle to the mailbox to mail a birthday card to her aunt.
An accident reconstruction showed how Atwood struck Vicki’s bike at a slow speed. It was located just one block from an elementary school.
Atwood was initially charged with only kidnapping, but a few months later, Vicki’s remains were found in the desert outside of Tucson and Atwood was indicted and later convicted of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death.
According to an article in the Arizona Daily Star on the 25th anniversary of Vicki’s death, Atwood has “gotten married, been baptized in the Greek Orthodox Christian church, obtained two associate degrees, a bachelor’s degree in English/pre-law and a master’s degree in literature; He has written six books, five of which have been published, and he’s also working with people on the outside to create a website” while on death row. His execution is set for June 8. He has been on death row for 35 years.
The state is set to resume its executions on May 11, starting with Clarence W. Dixon – a multi-felon convict who has been on death row since 2008. Dixon was already serving seven life terms when DNA matched him to the 1978 rape and murder of Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin.
The execution will be the state’s first since the botched 2014 lethal injection of Joseph Wood III, which took nearly two hours of Wood gasping and snorting more than 600 times.
