The U.S. Supreme Court set aside the death sentences of six convicted murderers in Arizona after recently ruling that withholding certain information from the jury during the sentencing process was unlawful.
The court previously held it was illegal to prevent jurors from being informed that if a condemned person were given a life sentence it would be without the possibility of parole.
The ruling on March 6 does not set aside the murder convictions of Johnathan Ian Burns, Steve Boggs, Ruben Garza, Fabio Gomez, Steven Newell, and Stephen Reeves, but directs the lower courts to carry out new sentencing proceedings.
The decision follows the high court’s 5–4 ruling on Feb. 22 that held that convicted cop killer John Montenegro Cruz, also in Arizona, was entitled to contest his sentence in federal court after a state court’s procedural rule prevented him from doing so….