PHOENIX (AP) -- The first person scheduled to be executed in Arizona since 2000 will not appear at a clemency hearing Tuesday because he wants to die, his lawyer said.

The hearing for Robert Charles Comer, 50, is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. in the office of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency in Phoenix. Clemency hearings typically offer death row inmates their last chance to seek mercy.

www.azcorrections.gov

Comer is scheduled to be executed on May 22. That's unless the clemency board decides to recommend otherwise to Gov. Janet Napolitano, who would then have to decide whether to grant clemency.

If the board decides against clemency, Napolitano would not need to approve that decision, said Duane Belcher, chairman and executive director of the clemency board.

Belcher said Comer's presence is not required.

Kimerer said he would appear at the hearing to make Comer's wishes known to the board.

Juan Martinez, who will argue for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office against clemency, declined to comment Monday, citing the pending matter. Instead, he referred to a letter he submitted to the clemency board in advance detailing Comer's crimes.

In 1988, Comer was convicted of killing an Apache Lake camper and then subjecting a young Chicago couple to a night of terror and repeated rapes during a drive through wilderness areas.

Besides the first-degree murder and armed robbery conviction for the shooting death of Larry Pritchard, Comer also was convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court of sexual assault, armed robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault for the attacks on the female camper and her boyfriend.

Comer's girlfriend was with him at the time of the crimes and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and testified against Comer. Juneva Willis served nearly six years in prison before her 1994 release.

The last execution in Arizona was in 2000.