Charles Hedlund v. Charles Ryan

I write separately to express my own views as to Part VI of the majority opinion, which holds that the Arizona Supreme Court applied a “causal nexus” test to Hedlund’s nonstatutory mitigating evidence, in. violation of Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982). Our about-face on this issue, see Hedlund v. Ryan, 750 F.3d 793, 813-20 (9th Cir.2014) (finding no Eddings error), is solely the result of our court’s recent decision in McKinney v. Ryan, No. 09-99018, 813 F.3d 798, 2015 WL 9466506 (9th Cir. Dec. 29, 2015) (en banc). For the reasons discussed at length in my…