USA - Arizona. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned the death sentence of Christopher Spreitz

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned the death sentence of Christopher Spreitz because the Arizona Supreme Court didn’t give his history of substance abuse the proper weight. Spreitz, 52, White, was sentenced to death on December 21, 1994 in Pima County in the May 19, 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of Ruby Reid. A divided panel of the court today ruled 2-1 that the Arizona courts unconstitutionally required Speitz to prove that his history of substance abuse had a causal link to the offense before it could be given any weight as mitigating evidence to potentially spare his life.