McKinney v. Arizona
2020 United States Supreme Court case From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
McKinney v. Arizona, 589 U.S. ___ (2020), is a Supreme Court of the United States decision concerning how an appellate court handles sentencing after an Edding's error is identified – an error in which a person deciding a sentence in a capital punishment does not consider all mitigating evidence. It ruled that the state appellate court, rather than a jury, should reweigh the mitigating and aggravating factors in a habeas corpus review.
| McKinney v. Arizona | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued December 11, 2019 Decided February 25, 2020 | |
| Full case name | James Erin McKinney v. State of Arizona |
| Docket no. | 18-1109 |
| Citations | 589 U.S. ___ (more) |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kavanaugh, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch |
| Dissent | Ginsburg, joined by Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
James Erin McKinney (born June 4, 1967),[1] along with his half-brother Charles Michael Hedlund (born November 22, 1964),[1] committed two counts of burglary which resulted in two deaths.[2] After being prosecuted by the State of Arizona, McKinney was found guilty of two counts of First Degree Murder. At sentencing, a psychologist testified that he had diagnosed McKinney with post-traumatic stress disorder, with the sentencing judge stating that McKinney's childhood was “beyond the comprehension of most people.” [3] Arizona state law prevented the judge from considering this as it had no direct relevance to the crime and McKinney was thus sentenced to death.[4]
On appeal in 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.[5] It was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court over disagreements on whether a judge or jury should resentence the defendant.[4][6] As of April 2021, both McKinney and Hedlund are among 20 Arizona death row inmates who have exhausted all their appeals.[7]
The Court ruled 5–4 that the state appellate court may reweigh the aggravating and mitigating factors.[4]
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
