State of Arizona v. Thomas Michael Riley

Summary

The court affirmed Riley’s convictions for first-degree murder and assisting a criminal street gang and his death sentence. It held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying substitution of counsel, and that alleged errors involving juror questionnaires, juror questioning, evidence, jury instructions, aggravating factors, prosecutorial argument, and parole-related instructions either were not errors, were harmless, or did not constitute fundamental prejudicial error. The court upheld the constitutional sufficiency of the aggravating-factor instructions and concluded that the evidence overwhelmingly supported the verdicts and sentence.