PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the death sentence of a Phoenix man convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter by setting her on fire.
In a unanimous part of the ruling, the state high court ordered a new sentencing for Shawn Grell on grounds that he was entitled to have a jury trial for sentencing because he'd lodged his legal position on that issue earlier this decade while it was apparent that the U.S. Supreme Court would impose a new requirement for jury trials in death-penalty sentencings.
However, with one of five justices dissenting, the court rejected Grell's constitutional challenge to the burden of proof required under state law for defendants to contend they are mentally retarded and ineligible for a possible death sentence.
Grell repeatedly admitted to authorities that he took his sleeping daughter, Kristen, to the desert near Apache Junction, put her on the ground, poured gasoline on her and — as she woke up — lit a match and flicked it on her. The girl died from smoke inhalation and severe burns that covered 98 percent of her body.
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Grell claimed mental retardation as one of several grounds for leniency in sentencing, but a Maricopa County Superior Court judge said Grell didn't meet the burden of proving retardation before age 18 by the required standard of "clear and convincing evidence."
Justice Scott Bales dissented, saying that a lower standard of proof of "preponderance of the evidence" would satisfy the constitutional requirement for due process of law.
After Grell was convicted of the 1999 slaying of his daughter, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 20, 2002, that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Following the killing and Grell's conviction but before his sentencing, the Arizona Legislature in 2001 prohibited the execution of mentally retarded people and created a process for mental evaluation of murder defendants.
