Freddie Crespin v. Charles Ryan

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

FREDDIE CRESPIN, No. 18-15073 Petitioner-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 2:15-cv-00992-

SPL

CHARLES L. RYAN; Attorney General for the State of Arizona, Respondents-Appellants. OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Steven Paul Logan, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 6, 2019 Submission Vacated March 19, 2019 Resubmitted August 12, 2022 Phoenix, Arizona

Filed August 19, 2022

Before: Michael Daly Hawkins, Milan D. Smith, Jr., and Andrew D. Hurwitz, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Hurwitz SUMMARY *

Habeas Corpus

The panel affirmed the district court’s grant of a conditional writ of habeas corpus to Freddie Crespin, who in 1995 was charged in Arizona with first-degree murder committed when he was sixteen years old.

Because the Supreme Court had not yet held that the death penalty could not be imposed on defendants younger than eighteen when the crime occurred, Crespin faced a possible capital sentence if convicted. To avoid that possibility, he entered into a plea agreement…