Man moved off Ariz. death row for '82 murder case

Warren Summerlin, 61, was originally sentenced to death for raping and murdering a bill collector in Phoenix in 1981.

Summerlin's attorneys took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 to determine whether another landmark decision would be retroactive to the Summerlin case.

In 2002, justices ruled that juries and not judges would decide if aggravating circumstances of a murder existed that would demand a death penalty. That case, known as the Ring Decision, was named for its defendant, Timothy Ring.

Ring was convicted of the 1994 murder of an armored-car guard at a Phoenix shopping mall.

Ring and about 30 other murderers who had been sentenced to death by judges were granted new trials to reassess their death penalties.

Based on the Ring Decision, the Supreme Court turned Summerlin down, ruling that Ring would affect only defendants who had not yet finished first-round appeals to the state and U.S. supreme courts.

Summerlin's sentence and conviction had been upheld by those courts.

In 2005, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Summerlin a new trial because Summerlin's defense attorney at trial did not adequately investigate Summerlin's mental deficiency or family history as mitigating factors to present to the judge before sentencing.

Pinal County, which took over the case from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, dropped its intent to seek the death penalty on Dec. 2. Judge Gary Donahoe of Maricopa County Superior Court accepted the decision Dec. 12.

Summerlin was scheduled for sentencing Jan. 9 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Summerlin's attorneys did not return phone calls seeking comment.