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US SUPREME COURT WON'T HEAR ARIZONA DEATH SENTENCE CASE
October 3, 2016: The United States Supreme Court has denied the State of Arizona's petition to review an en banc decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturning the death sentence of James McKinney.
The Court's order in Ryan v. McKinney, No. 15-1222, lets stand a ruling of the full Circuit, binding on all panels of that court, which held that that Arizona's "causal nexus" rule violated the Constitution.
The rule required any mitigating evidence, such as mental illness or post-traumatic stress disorder, to be directly tied to the crime committed to be relevant in sentencing. The decision is expected to affect as many as 25 death sentences imposed in Arizona between 1989 and 2005. (Source: Associated Press, 03/10/2016)
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