USA - Arizona. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the death sentence of James McKinney.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the death sentence of James McKinney, White. The Court ruled that Arizona's "causal nexus" rule violated the Constitution. The rule required any mitigating evidence, such as mental illness or post-traumatic stress disorder, to be directly tied to the crime committed to be relevant in sentencing. In the case of McKinney, that means a judge could have granted some leniency - and perhaps avoided the death penalty - had he been able to consider McKinney's troubled past and abuse as a child. But McKinney's abuse wasn't directly correlated to the double murders he committed, so it wasn't admissible as a mitigating factor in court. McKinney was sentenced to death in 1993 for the March 1991 murders of Christine Mertens and James McClain, during the commission of two different burglaries. The "causal nexus" rule was applied in Arizona for about 15 years, until 2006. The appeals court's 6-5 ruling means the state will have to retry McKinney's sentence, reduce it or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. His conviction for double murder stands. If the appeals court ruling stands, it could affect other cases, according to defense attorneys and the dissenting judges.