Every indexed document

the trial court reimposed death sentences

since the Arizona courts had not found that the condemned brothers had shown a “reckless disregard for human life.” 60 The majority therefore

a mental state that may be taken into account in making a capital sentencing judgment when that conduct causes its natural

one intends certain consequences when he desires that his acts cause those consequences or knows that those consequences are substantially certain to result from his acts.""... As petitioners point out

we would win. The justices seemed to acknowledge that if there was no evidence that Ricky and Raymond had the “specific intent” to kill the Lyons’ family “that’s the end of the case.” I was confident that when the justices reviewed the enti...

I decided to point the Court to the record evidence that the brothers were not at the scene of the crime and did not foresee that their father and Randy would kill the Lyons’ family:

” and that the brothers “presence at the scene” is “essential

the two boys instead of following along as they did

but insisting that they could not be executed for the unanticipated murders:

so I threw a hypothetical back to him—law professor to law professor:

under an agreement that no shooting would take place.

but this time the stakes were much higher. I answered the Justice’s question:

but the idea of a gun being throw by one robber to another had never occurred to me. I had to think quickly. In the classroom

it was clear from the record that they specifically intended not to kill and that Gary and Randy had to trick the brothers into going for water before opening fire. I also pointed to a finding by the Arizona Supreme Court that the murder of...

but I had two clients on death row. I was their lawyer

which now might be 5-4 against us. And the large number of condemned inmates who faced execution on a theory similar to that which had lead the sentencing judge in Arizona to sentence the Tison brothers to die even though they had not kille...

I had received several phone calls from anti-capital punishment lawyers imploring me not to file a petition for certiorari in the Tison case. “Count the noses

we decided to seek review in the Supreme Court. This decision was itself controversial within the anti-capital punishment legal community. The legal landscape had changed since the Supreme Court decided Furman and several other cases imposi...

based on the account they had given the authorities. Under the laws of felony murder and conspiracy

public outrage was focused on those who were still alive. The media presented the recurrent vision of the murdered toddler and expressed the view that “if they hadn’t gotten Gary Tison and Greenawalt out