NEWS & CASE UPDATES
Case Updates
2012 UT 93
Filed December 21, 2012
Mr. Ross was convicted of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. His criminal defense trail attorney failed to raise an affirmative defense of extreme emotional distress, which was likely Mr. Ross’s best defense.
2012 UT 68
Filed October 5, 2012
Mr. Ross was convicted of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. His criminal defense trail attorney failed to raise an affirmative defense of extreme emotional distress, which was likely Mr. Ross’s best defense.
2012 UT 69
Filed October 5, 2012
A man convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death was not eligible for post-conviction relief because he did not show that the outcome of his case was prejudiced by ineffective assistance of his criminal defense attorney.
2012 UT 50
Filed August 10, 2012
In order to be convicted of aggravated assault, a defendant must intend to commit serious bodily injury; it is not sufficient to merely intend to commit the act which results in the serious bodily injury. Further, while failing to object to a confusing jury instruction may be deficient performance on the part of a criminal defense lawyer, it is not ineffective assistance of counsel unless the error prejudices the outcome of the case.
2011 UT 59
Filed September 30, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief of a man convicted of murder because his claims either should have been raised on direct appeal or were appropriately dismissed by the district court for lack of jurisdiction.
2011 UT App 319
Filed September 15, 2011
MEMORNDUM DECISION
The Utah Court of Appeals held that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors in determining a defendant’s sentence.
2011 UT App 301
Filed September 1, 2011
PER CURIAM DECISION
Judicial review of a decision of the Utah Board of Pardons is granted only for an alleged violation of procedural due process, and not to challenge a substantive decision.
2011 UT 53
Filed August 30, 2011
The Salt Lake City district court ruled there was not probable cause to support the warrant under which Ms. Chanzy’s blood was drawn, but did not grant her motion to suppress the evidence, relying on a possible exception to the warrant requirements. The Utah Supreme Court reversed on the alternate grounds that there was probable cause for the warrant.
2011 UT App 281
Filed August 25, 2011
Memorandum Decision
Officers’ traffic stop, detention of the defendant, and search of a vehicle was constitutional when the officers observed the defendant commit a minor traffic violation and had reasonable articulable suspicion that the defendant was transporting drugs.
2011 UT App 255
Filed August 4, 2011
Memorandum Decision
The Utah Court of Appeals held there was no ineffective assistance of counsel when two shoplifters’ criminal defense attorney had a legitimate tactical reason for not seeking to reintroduce threat allegations that would have damaged the defendants’ credibility.
2011 UT App 229
Filed July 21, 2011
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision to impose consecutive rather than concurrent sentences after the defendant pleaded no contest to three counts of sexual abuse of a child.
2011 UT 40
Filed July 22, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court held that if a police officer makes a reasonable mistake about the grounds when initiating a traffic stop, the officer may make contact with the driver to explain the mistake and end the stop. If during this brief encounter with the driver new reasonable suspicion of criminal activity immediately arises, the officer may continue the stop.
2011 UT App 227
Filed July 14, 2011
The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a restitution award for the time an art professor spent restoring and reorganizing his computer files after his laptop was stolen. Mr. Birkeland pled no contest to the theft of a laptop computer belonging to Utah Valley University art professor Perry Stewart. When authorities recovered the laptop two days after the theft, almost all of its files had been deleted.
2011 UT 36
Filed July 12, 2011
In his third direct appeal from his conviction for the aggravated murder of Joyce Yost, the defendant appealed the district court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea. The Utah Supreme Court reversed, holding that a trial court’s failure to strictly comply with Utah Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e) constitutes good cause to withdraw a guilty plea.
2011 UT App 211
Filed June 30, 2011
Per Curiam Decision
The Utah Court of Appeals held that the defendant could not withdraw his guilty pleas on the grounds that they were not given voluntarily because factual findings indicated that he did give them voluntarily and because he did not provide an adequate record for the appellate court to review.
2011 UT 30
Filed June 10, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court held that a Utah statute which criminalizes the act of “knowingly and intentionally” having “any measurable amount of a controlled substance in [one’s] body” does not violate either the Utah or United States Constitution.The Utah Supreme Court held that a Utah statute which criminalizes the act of “knowingly and intentionally” having “any measurable amount of a controlled substance in [one’s] body” does not violate either the Utah or United States Constitution.
2011 UT App 168
Filed May 26, 2011
The Utah Court of Appeals held that a defendant’s charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor and forcible sexual abuse were properly joined because the crimes were connected in their commission in that they showed an escalating pattern of behavior.
2011 UT App 177
Filed June 3, 2011
Utah Court of Appeals rules that a defendant must be sentenced before being allowed to file an appeal from final judgment.
2011 UT App 155
Filed May 12, 2011
In 2001, James White was charged with criminal nonsupport for failure to pay child support from 1994 through 2000. Mr. White’s case was delayed for several years because of his conflicts with his court appointed attorneys, his filing of hundreds of pages of motions, and his incarceration in Colorado on a different charge.
2011 UT 23
Filed April 29, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court held that the victims in a criminal case had no standing to appeal a restitution order because at the time they filed their appeal there was not statute in place that gave them the right to appeal.
2011 UT 24
Filed May 6, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court held that it was ineffective assistance of counsel for Mr. Lenkart’s attorney to fail to analyze and present the physical evidence in a rape kit when that evidence could have changed the outcome of the trial.
2011 UT 21
Filed April 19, 2011
The Utah Supreme Court found that A jury can consider past experiences and emotions when deciding whether a defendant acted under extreme emotional distress.
2011 UT 16
Filed March 29, 2011
Hernandez was charged by information with four Class A misdemeanors. Hernandez filed a request for a preliminary hearing. The district court denied his request. The Utah Supreme Court reversed and held that a defendant charged with a Class A misdemeanor is entitled to a preliminary hearing.
Memorandum Decision
2011 UT App 95
Filed March 24, 2011
At the close of the State’s case in chief at his trial for aggravated burglary, Schwabland made a motion to dismiss. The motion was denied and Schwabland was convicted. He appealed the denial of his motion to dismiss to the Utah Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court for the following reasons…
Memorandum Decision
2011 UT App 108
Filed April 7, 2011
Kragh was charged with eight counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He agreed to plead guilty to four counts and to pay restitution in exchange to the State’s dismissal of the other four charges and recommendation that he not serve any prison time. The prosecutor…
Articles
In a legal system that is supposed to be fair and protect the freedom of the innocent, why are people still getting convicted of crimes they didn’t commit? This article from the Chicago Tribune talks about how police will often pressure suspects until they confess, even when the evidence shows that they are innocent. In most cases, police avoid going too far, but what about the cases where the police don’t care about the truth because they are “just doing their job?” Unfortunately, it happens more often than it should.
Many criminal laws are important and helpful to society, but as Congress continues to add more and more criminal laws to the books, more people are committing crimes without even knowing it. This video from the Heritage Foundation shows one of the reasons we need criminal defense attorneys to fight against the over-criminalization of America.