Leroy Dean McGill was executed by lethal injection in Arizona for the 2002 murder of James Perez, whom he set on fire after dousing him with gasoline.

Arizona carried out its first execution of the year Wednesday morning, putting to death a man convicted of a notoriously brutal killing that stemmed from a violent attack more than two decades ago.

McGill returned to the apartment on July 13, 2002, where he told Perez and Banta that they shouldn’t talk about people behind their backs before he threw a cup of gasoline on them along with a lit mat...