© CBS 5PHOENIX (AP) -
A federal appeals court says defense lawyers crossed the line by asking a judge to step aside from an Arizona death penalty case involving a Tucson carjacking murder because her own father was killed in a similar crime.
Judge Susan Graber denied the request by death row inmate Kevin Miles' lawyers that she excuse herself.
An order issued Friday by two other 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges criticizes federal public defenders' request based on the 1974 killing of Graber's father in a Cincinnati carjacking.
The two judges reject the assertion that Graber's impartiality can reasonably be questioned.
They also say Graber has decades to absorb her loss but that forcing her to relive it now goes beyond limits of appropriate legal representation.
Graber is a former Oregon judge.
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