The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Arizona’s effort to block a new hearing for a death row inmate.
The high court, without comment, turned down the state’s appeal of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that a lower court failed to reasonably determine whether a Maricopa County Superior Court judge should have removed herself from the case.
At issue were statements made by then-Judge Ruth Hilliard, who sentenced Richard Hurles to die, after a jury convicted him in the 1992 stabbing death of Buckeye librarian Kay Blanton.
While the case was pending, Hilliard described the killing, during which the victim was stabbed 37 times, as brutal. This was the 13th time the high court had considered Hurles’ appeal at a case conference and their action means the inmate will get a hearing on the bias claim.