Mitigating Mental Health Evidence in Death Penalty Cases

Abstract

In Jones v. Ryan, 52 F.4th 1104 (9th Cir. 2022), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed Danny Lee Jones’s habeas corpus petition challenging his death sentence in Arizona after he was convicted of two murders. The court found that Mr. Jones’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was supported by meeting the two criteria established in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), specifically highlighting counsel’s failure to hire a mental health expert to explore potentially mitigating evidence in his case.