Identification of the inmate
James McKinney is an Arizona death-row inmate who was unconditionally sentenced to death by a trial Arizona court judge despite his Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from relentless childhood abuse, which was not considered during his trial and prosecution process.
Background of the Cases
In 1993, McKinney was sentenced to death for committing two separate murders during a robbery with violence (American Bar Association, 2020). The cases were heard by the Arizona Supreme Court back when crimes were committed. During his trial, the judge in charge of the case discovered that McKinney encountered horrific childhood experiences, which contributed to his severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, a condition which he was suffering from during the two crimes that he committed. However, the trial court ignored the claim that McKinney was mentally ill when he committed the crimes and thus requested a direct causal connection to crimes before considering mitigation.
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Sentence of the Case
The Arizona Supreme Court sentenced McKinney to death after weighing the aggravating circumstances against the mitigation evidence in the case.
Discussion of the Case
The Arizona Supreme Court ruling of a death sentence to McKinney was a fair and just judgment. The main reason is that when McKinney committed the two murder crimes, his intention was targeting the properties that he went to steal, not the murder crimes he committed. The latter implies that despite McKinney having severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, it does not give him the right to commit murder crime (American Bar Association, 2020). According to the Ring v. Arizona court ruling, the United States Court declined the Arizona death sentencing procedures arguing the process is a sign of gross violation of the defendant's rights. Based on this, the jury should determine all facts that the defendant was mentally ill during he or she committed. Nevertheless, the ruling of the McKinney case, the court did not apply the 2002 case of Ring v Arizona. The reason was that the McKinney case had past or completed its mandatory initial stages where the ruling of Ring v Arizona case could have been used to make a different court judgment.
On the other hand, if McKinney was mentally ill during the time he committed the two murder crimes, he was supposed to present a proof of being suffering from severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder during the crimes to help the court make a proper judgment on the case. Despite McKinney currently who has severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder while in police custody, it is difficult to tell whether he was experiencing the same metal disorder when he committed the two crimes (Baker et al. 2020). As such, the court ruling in the case was fair and just because he did not present legal proof or mental documents stating that he was mentally ill during the two murder crimes.
Furthermore, the Arizona Supreme Court ruling of a death sentence to McKinney was worth it because it was according to the provision of the United States constitution on murder criminals. As such, justice should be awarded where deserved when the trial chambers find out that the defendant committed the stated crime despite mental condition during the two crimes.
Even though an appeal was presented to the United States Court of Appeal, the defendant attorney, the Ninth Circuit could not overturn the Arizona Supreme Court ruling of a death sentence to McKinney of 1993. The reason being that McKinney failed to present to the judges a proof confirming that he had severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder during the time he committed the two different crimes (Martinez-Fraga, 2020). Lastly, the death sentence ruled by the Arizona Supreme Court was fair because even if McKinney was mentally ill, the condition could not direct him to commit two similar crimes successively.
References
American Bar Association. (2020, March 11). Divided U.S. Supreme Court rules against Arizona death-row prisoner James McKinney . https://www.americanbar.org/groups/committees/death_penalty_representation/project_press/2020/spring/us-supreme-court-mckinney-v-arizona/
Baker, J. R., & McKinney Timm, A. (2020). Zero-Tolerance: The Trump Administration's Human Rights Violations against Migrants on the Southern Border.
Martinez-Fraga, P. J. (2020). The American influence on international commercial arbitration: Doctrinal developments and discovery methods . Cambridge University Press.
