Mckinney v. Arizona
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 25, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- February 25, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kavanaugh
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice KAVANAUGH delivered the opinion of the Court. Over a 4-week span in early 1991, James McKinney and his half brother, Charles Hedlund, burglarized five residences in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. During one of the burglaries, McKinney and Hedlund beat and repeatedly stabbed Christine Mertens. McKinney then shot Mertens in the back of the head, fatally wounding her. In another burglary, McKinney and Hedlund killed Jim McClain by shooting him in the back of the head with a sawed-off rifle. In 1992, an Arizona jury convicted McKinney of two counts of first-degree murder. Under this Court's precedents, a defendant convicted of murder is eligible for a death sentence if at least one aggravating circumstance is found. See Tuilaepa v. California , 512 U.S. 967, 114 S.Ct. 2630, 129 L.Ed.2d 750 (1994) ; Zant v. Stephens , 462 U.S. 862, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983) ; Gregg v. Georgia , 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). McKinney's trial judge found aggravating circumstances for both murders. For the Mertens murder, the judge found that McKinney committed the murder for pecuniary gain and that McKinney killed Mertens in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner. For the McClain murder, the judge found that McKinney committed the murder for pecuniary gain and that McKinney had been convicted of another offense with a potential sentence of life…
Excerpt of a 26,147-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.