James Erin McKinney was born on June 4, 1967, in the United States. He experienced a highly traumatic and abusive childhood, which would later become a central focus of his sentencing appeals. At trial and later during appeals, a psychologist testified that McKinney suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stemming from years of severe physical and emotional abuse during his youth. His upbringing was described in court by the judge as being “beyond the comprehension of most people,” highlighting the extensive trauma he endured. Despite these hardships, McKinney was not diagnosed or treated for his mental health issues until long after his crimes had occurred.

McKinney eventually became involved in criminal activity alongside his half-brother, Charles Michael Hedlund, born November 22, 1964. Together, the two planned and carried out a series of burglaries in early 1991 across Arizona, during which two individuals were brutally murdered. While both men were apprehended, tried, and convicted, McKinney’s case would gain national attention decades later due to the legal battles surrounding how mitigating evidence, such as his PTSD and abuse history, should be considered during sentencing in capital cases.

In March 1991, James Erin McKinney and his half-brother Charles Hedlund embarked on a violent crime spree that included burglaries and two homicides. The first victim, Christine Mertens, a 40-year-old secretary, was killed on March 10, 1991, during a break-in at her Phoenix home. She was discovered with multiple stab wounds, and authorities concluded she had been murdered by McKinney. Eight days later, on March 18, 1991, Jim McClain, a 65-year-old retiree, was murdered during another burglary. McClain was shot in the head with a .22 caliber pistol.

McKinney and Hedlund were arrested on March 25, 1991, and charged with multiple offenses including two counts of first-degree murder. McKinney’s trial was separated from his half-brother's, and he was convicted in November 1993. During sentencing, a psychologist testified that McKinney had long suffered from PTSD caused by his abusive upbringing. However, at the time, Arizona law restricted judges from considering mitigating factors unless there was a direct causal connection to the crime, meaning the PTSD diagnosis was largely dismissed in the sentencing phase. McKinney was sentenced to death.

Decades later, McKinney’s legal team argued that this refusal to consider his PTSD as a mitigating factor was an Eddings error—a reference to Eddings v. Oklahoma (1982), a case that ruled sentencing courts must consider all relevant mitigating evidence. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court as McKinney v. Arizona, and on February 25, 2020, the Court ruled 5–4 that an appellate court—not a jury—could reweigh the aggravating and mitigating evidence in such habeas corpus reviews. The Court did not overturn McKinney’s sentence.

As of April 2021, both James McKinney and Charles Hedlund remain on Arizona’s death row, having exhausted all appeals. Despite the lengthy legal battle and renewed attention to the role of trauma in sentencing, McKinney’s death sentence was upheld, and no execution date has been set as of 2024.