Thornell v. Jones
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 30, 2024 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 30, 2024
- Term
- October Term 2023
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Alito
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2023 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus THORNELL, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS v. JONES CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 22–982. Argued April 17, 2024—Decided May 30, 2024 Respondent Danny Lee Jones was convicted of the premeditated first- degree murders of Robert and Tisha Weaver and the attempted pre- meditated murder of Robert’s grandmother Katherine Gumina. Ari- zona law at the time required the trial court to “impose a sentence of death” if it found “one or more” statutorily enumerated “aggravating circumstances” and “no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substan- tial to call for leniency.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §13–703(E). The trial court found three aggravating circumstances that applied to both Rob- ert’s and Tisha’s murders: Jones committed multiple homicides, §13– 703(F)(8); he was motivated by “pecuniary” gain, §13–703(F)(5); and the murders were “especially heinous, cruel or depraved,” §13–…
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