  Gary Lowenthal Professor Emeritus Gary Lowenthal recently won
a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out
the death sentence of a man who was convicted in a 1981 murder,
sending the case back to state court for resentencing.
Lowenthal leads the defense team of Steven Craig James, who has
been on death row in Arizona for nearly 30 years.  James, 53,
and two other defendants were convicted of beating to death Juan
Maya.  “We’re not challenging the fact that it was a culpable
murder,” Lowenthal said. “My client was seriously mentally ill
at the time of the murder, and much of his tragic life’s story
was never presented.”  In court, Lowenthal demonstrated the
impact of events that happened to James in the months before the
crime as mitigating factors that should have been presented at
the original sentencing in 1982.  “It connected his life’s story
to the crime in a powerful way,” Lowenthal said, “showing that
it was a crime of circumstance.”  In a decision handed down on
Oct. 12, the 9th