Robert Henry Moormann v. Dora B. Schriro, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections

Robert Henry Moormann was convicted in Arizona of the first degree murder of his elderly adoptive mother and sentenced to death in 1985. This is an appeal from the district court’s denial of his first federal petition for habeas corpus relief. He earlier filed two unsuccessful state petitions for collateral relief after losing his direct appeal from the conviction and sentence in state court.

We heard oral argument in this case in November 2001. We then deferred submission pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 , 122 S.Ct. 2428 , 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). In Ring , the Court decided that the Arizona sentencing scheme applied in this case, in which the trial judge alone determined the presence or absence of aggravating factors required by Arizona law for the imposition of the death penalty, was not compatible with the Sixth Amendment. 536 U.S. at 589 , 122 S.Ct. 2428 . We again deferred submission pending the outcome of other cases with priority that determined the retroactivity of Ring. See Pizzuto v. Arave, 280 F.3d 949 (9th Cir.2002); amended by 385 F.3d 1247 (9th Cir.2004); aff’d 385 F.3d 1247 (9th Cir.2004); Summerlin v. Stewart, 341 F.3d 1082…