22 April 2019 :

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned 2-1 the death sentence imposed on Theodore Washington. By a 2-1 vote, the court held that Washington's trial lawyer had been ineffective for failing to investigate and present a range of mitigating evidence in the penalty phase of his trial. Washington, 58, Black, was sentenced to death in Yuma County on January 18, 1988 for the June 8, 1987 home-invasion killing of Sterleen Hill.