Arizona has set an execution date for a convicted killer on death row, marking the state's return to the death penalty after more than a decade of issues.

The Arizona Supreme Court set a March 19 execution date Tuesday for a man who pleaded guilty to murder more than 17 years ago and recently said his death sentence was “long overdue.” It would be the state’s first application of the death penalty in more than two years.

The court issued an execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches, who was convicted in 2007 in the 2002 shooting death of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa