This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

An 11-year-old stepdaughter of D was found murdered in the desert. D was suspected, but nothing was ever determined. When D was later put in prison for firearm possession, D was approached by an informant who eventually got D to confess to the murder of the girl; but used veiled threats of prison retaliation and protection. D was tried and convicted, and the judge allowed his confessions in at trial. D was sentenced to death. D appealed; the confession to the informant was the product of coercion. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled the confession coerced but that the admission was harmless error, but that was later reconsidered, and the conviction was reversed, and D was ordered retried without the use of the confession.

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