US Supreme Court agrees to hear Arizona case related to death penalty

Jimmy Jenkins, Arizona Republic
·2 min read
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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge from the Arizona Attorney General's Office to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found ineffective legal representation may have contributed to a man's death sentence.

Danny Lee Jones was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for the killing of Robert Weaver and his 7-year-old daughter, Tisha.

Jones challenged the death sentence at the trial court, claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, but was denied.

The 9th Circuit reversed the trial court's ruling, finding that his trial attorney didn’t do enough to investigate and present information about Jones during sentencing that may have led the jury to impose a less severe sentence.

In its petition for review to the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's Office argued that the 9th Circuit did not appropriately apply legal precedent that established a defendant must show they received representation so deficient that it deprived them of a fair trial.

In his response to the state, Jones argued his attorney didn’t do enough preparation for the penalty phase of his prosecution, “resulting in a grossly inadequate mitigation case that failed to uncover extensive and powerful evidence of Jones’s mental health issues” and that the 9th Circuit was correct in granting relief.

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Although Arizona is undergoing a review of its death penalty process, the Attorney General's Office had to proceed now with a petition to the Supreme Court because of a deadline to ask the high court for review, said Ellen Pierce, a spokesperson for Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Attorneys for Jones did not return a request for comment from The Arizona Republic.

The Supreme Court will likely hear oral arguments on the case in late March or early April.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: US Supreme Court agrees to hear Arizona case about death penalty