USA - Arizona. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing for Charles Hedlund

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing for Charles Hedlund. The Court ruled that the Arizona Supreme Court did not properly weigh mitigating factors when it upheld Hedlund's death sentence for the 1991 murders of Jim McClain and Christene Mertens during the course of a burglary spree. Hedlund was convicted with James McKinney in the deaths of McClain and Mertens. On Dec. 29, 2015 (see) McKinney - Hedlund's half-brother - had his death sentence overturned by the same court in December using the same arguments about mitigating factors, a ruling that figured heavily in Friday's decision.