A Phoenix man has been sentenced to death for the 2020 rape and murder of a woman whose body was found nude and showing signs of trauma at a gas station near I-10 and 27th Avenue. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said 35-year-old Humphry Dixon Dogbe was sentenced to death for his role in the sexual assault and murder of Lori Lynn Blankenship, who was killed in the early morning hours of May 8, 2020.
Police responded to a call at the gas station around 4:30 a.m. that day and found Blankenship dead, according to KGUN 9. Surveillance cameras at the scene showed Dogbe dragging Blankenship across the pavement, choking her and sexually assaulting her before leaving, the station reported. Additional footage reportedly captured Dogbe wearing the same clothing as the person seen attacking Blankenship, and a witness was able to identify him in a lineup.
Dogbe later admitted to raping and choking Blankenship, claiming that he had tried to solicit her for sex and that she had refused, per the same account from KGUN 9. At the time of the killing, Dogbe was a registered sex offender who lived in the area where the incident happened, according to FOX 10 Phoenix.
Jury Verdict and Sentencing
In September, a jury found Dogbe guilty of one count of first-degree murder, one count of kidnapping, four counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual abuse, the KGUN 9 report notes. He was also sentenced to 48 years in prison for the kidnapping, sexual assault and sexual abuse counts.
Reports differ on how that 48-year term relates to his death sentence. azfamily.com reported that the county attorney's office said the prison term will run concurrently with his death sentence, while FOX 10 Phoenix reported only that the sentence will be served concurrently, without specifying concurrently with what. Under Arizona law, a defendant convicted of first-degree murder under the circumstances described in the statute can be sentenced to death or to natural life imprisonment, with the outcome determined through the procedures laid out in that section.
How Often Maricopa County Death Sentences Happen
Dogbe's sentence stands out against the broader track record of death-penalty prosecutions in the county. An analysis by ProPublica found that in nearly 350 Maricopa County cases over 20 years in which prosecutors pursued the death penalty, only 13% ended in a death sentence. Among the 76 cases that actually reached a jury weighing a death sentence, 41, or 54%, resulted in one, according to the same analysis.
That conversion rate lags behind some other large jurisdictions. ProPublica reported that prosecutors in Harris County, Texas, obtained a death sentence 75% of the time in the 24 death-penalty cases they took to trial between 2004 and 2023.
Even a death sentence does not mean swift execution in Arizona. FOX 10 Phoenix reported that the nine inmates the state has executed since 2013 had spent an average of around 25 years on death row. ProPublica reported that Arizona executed three people in 2022 before pausing after Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the lethal-injection process following her election.
