Opinion ID: 3166086
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: McKinney’s Crimes, Conviction, and Sentence

Text: James McKinney and his older half brother, Charles Michael Hedlund, committed two burglaries in February and March of 1991. One person was shot and killed during each of the burglaries. At the time of the crimes, McKinney was 23 years old. Hedlund was 26 years old. McKinney and Hedlund had learned about potential burglary targets from their half brother, Christopher Morris, and a friend, Joe Lemon, who had suggested Christine Mertens’s home as a target. The four of them attempted to burglarize Ms. Mertens’s home on February 28, 1991, but Ms. Mertens came home and they left to avoid detection. The three half brothers, McKinney, Hedlund, and Morris, then committed two burglaries at other locations the following day. McKinney, Hedlund, and possibly Morris went back to Ms. Mertens’s house a little over a week later, on March 9, 1991. This time, Ms. Mertens was already at home. She was beaten and stabbed by one or more of the burglars. One of the burglars held Ms. Mertens down on the floor and shot her in the back of the head with a handgun, covering the gun with a pillow. (Morris turned state’s evidence and testified against McKinney and Hedlund. He testified that he was at work at Burger King on the night of the Mertens murder, but Burger King had no record of him working that night.) McKinney and Hedlund later tried unsuccessfully to sell the gun. They ultimately disposed of the gun by burying it in the desert. Not quite two weeks later, on March 22, 1991, McKinney and Hedlund burglarized the home of Jim McClain, from whom Hedlund had bought a car several months earlier. Mr. MCKINNEY V. RYAN 9 McClain was asleep in the bedroom. He was shot in the back of the head by either McKinney or Hedlund. The bullet was consistent with having been fired from a sawed-off rifle owned by Hedlund. McKinney and Hedlund were tried together before dual juries for the burglaries and homicides. McKinney’s jury found him guilty of two first degree murders. Hedlund’s jury found him guilty of second degree murder of Ms. Mertens and first degree murder of Mr. McClain. On July 23, 1993, the trial judge sentenced McKinney to death. The Supreme Court decision holding judge-sentencing in capital cases unconstitutional was nine years in the future. See Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002). In the last reasoned state court decision, the Arizona Supreme Court, reviewing de novo, affirmed McKinney’s conviction and sentence in 1996. McKinney, 917 P.2d 1214. We describe the Arizona Supreme Court’s sentencing decision at greater length below. McKinney filed for state post-conviction relief. His petition was denied by the trial court without an evidentiary hearing. The Arizona Supreme Court then summarily denied his petition for review.