Opinion ID: 1210792
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Drug Use and Withdrawal

Text: ¶ 47 Evidence showed that Greene had a history of substance abuse dating back to 1983. Despite occasional periods of sobriety, Greene always reverted to heavy use. ¶ 48 In State v. Jones, 185 Ariz. 471, 491, 917 P.2d 200, 220 (1996), this court gave some weight to evidence of that defendant's history of alcoholism and drug abuse, and his own statement that on the night of the murder he had not slept for three or four days and was under the influence of methamphetamine and alcohol. ¶ 49 Greene's drug use on the days before the murder is undisputed. From Friday, February 24, 1995, until Tuesday, February 28, 1995 (the date of the murder), Greene used methamphetamine every day. During this time he ate very little and did not sleep. Unlike the defendant in Jones, however, Greene testified that he was not under the influence of drugs at the time he killed. Nor was there expert testimony of any causal connection between drug use or withdrawal and the offense. See State v. Rienhardt, 190 Ariz. 579, 592, 951 P.2d 454, 467 (1997)(rejecting history of substance abuse as a mitigating circumstance when no evidence establishes a causal connection between the drug abuse and the crime). While it is true that Greene killed to get money to buy drugs, this is not the sort of causal connection that would support a claim of mitigation. To hold that a motivation to kill fueled in part by a desire for drugs is mitigating would be anomalous indeed. We reject this claimed mitigating circumstance.