Page:Cruz v. Arizona (2023).pdf/14

Rh reach the further issue whether the decision below is independent of federal law.

The State and the dissent offer various reformulations of the argument that Lynch was not a “significant change in the law” for Rule 32.1(g) purposes, but each fails to grapple with the basic point that Lynch reversed previously binding Arizona Supreme Court precedent.

Both the State and the dissent argue that the Arizona Supreme Court was justified in treating Lynch differently than other transformative decisions of this Court, such as Ring v. Arizona, 536 U. S. 584 (2002), and Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U. S. 356 (2010), because Lynch was a summary reversal and so did not “impos[e] a new or changed interpretation of state or federal law.” Brief for Respondent 12. As the dissent puts the argument: Lynch “did not change the law in Arizona.”

These arguments miss the point. While Lynch did not change this Court’s interpretation of Simmons, it did change the operative (and mistaken) interpretation of Simmons by Arizona courts. Lynch thus changed the law in Arizona in the way that matters for purposes of Rule 32.1(g): It overruled previously binding Arizona Supreme Court precedent preventing capital defendants from informing the jury of their parole ineligibility.