On Wednesday, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office argued at the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the death penalty sentence for David Ramirez and reinstate the first-degree murder conviction of Barry Jones. The AGO consolidated the defendants’ two cases in January 2021.
In January 2021, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) filed a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court, arguing that the Ninth Circuit had violated a federal statute by basing its decisions in these two cases on evidence the inmates had never before presented to the Arizona courts.
In June 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Arizona’s appeal. Now, the AGO is asking the Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decisions in these cases.
According to the AGO, in 1989, Ramirez brutally murdered his girlfriend, Mary Ann Gortarez, and her 15-year-old daughter by stabbing them to death inside their Phoenix apartment. Neighbors contacted police after they heard screaming, banging, and sounds of a struggle coming from Gortarez’s apartment. Inside, officers found the two victims, a bloody knife blade, and Ramirez.
Arizona courts have consistently denied relief to Ramirez, upholding his murder convictions and death sentences. The Ninth Circuit, however, remanded his case to the federal district court, holding that Ramirez was entitled to present new evidence supporting a claim that his attorneys erred by not presenting certain evidence at sentencing.
In 1994, Barry Jones murdered his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter. The victim died from an infection of her abdominal organs caused by blunt force trauma inflicted the day before while she was in Jones’ care. Jones did nothing to help the little girl; instead, he lied to friends who were worried about her condition and said she had been examined by paramedics. After she died overnight, Jones drove his girlfriend and the victim’s body to the hospital and left them there. The medical examiner determined that the 4-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted before her death.
Although the Arizona courts had consistently denied Jones’ attempt to overturn his convictions, a federal district court granted habeas relief based on new expert testimony he had never presented in state court and concluded that he was entitled to a new trial. The Ninth Circuit denied the State’s appeal and agreed with the district court that Jones must be retried or released from prison.