Greenway v. Ryan, No. 14-15309 (8-8-17)(Per Curiam w/ Schroeder, Rawlinson, Bea)(Note: This is an Az FPD case).  The 9th declined to find that the Az Supreme Court or the trial court had used an erroneous legal standard and affirmed the denial of the petitioner's challenge to his capital convictions.  The 9th, in McKinney v. Ryan, 813 F.3d 708 (9th Cir. 2015)(en banc), had concluded that the state courts had "consistently" used the wrong legal standard in requiring a casual nexus between mitigation and the offense.  This was contrary to Lockett. This panel had asked for supplemental briefing in this case in light of McKinney.  The panel holds that in this case, neither the trial court nor the state supreme court required a nexus.  McKinney had said the courts had "consistently" applied the wrong standard; that did not mean they always did.  Here, the state courts had considered mitigation without applying a casual nexus test.

The decision is here:

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/08/08/14-15309.pdf