Current:Home > MarketsUtah Supreme Court overturns death sentence for man convicted of murder -文件: temp/data/webname/news/nam2.txt
Utah Supreme Court overturns death sentence for man convicted of murder
View
Date:2025-04-15 05:34:10
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Supreme Court overturned a death sentence Thursday for a man convicted of murdering a woman to stop her from testifying against him in a rape case.
Justices said Douglas Lovell had ineffective attorneys at his sentencing hearing, but upheld his conviction and sent the case back to a lower court for resentencing. It was not immediately clear whether Lovell could again receive the death penalty.
Lovell, 66, has twice been convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost to prevent her from testifying against him on charges that he had raped her. He tried to hire two different people to kill Joyce and, when that failed, did it himself by abducting and strangling her, state officials said. He was sentenced to die by lethal injection but appealed the verdict.
In a 42-page opinion, justices faulted the attorneys at Lovell’s 2015 sentencing for failing to object or sufficiently respond to testimonies about his excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Utah-based faith known widely as the Mormon church. The justices said that prejudiced his sentencing hearing and prevented the jury from fairly weighing the circumstances of his crimes before it sentenced him to death.
“Lovell is entitled to a sentencing hearing free from this improper and prejudicial evidence,” the court said.
His attorney in the appeals case, Colleen Coebergh, declined to comment Thursday. A spokesperson for prosecutors from the Utah Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment.
A state judge ruled in 2021 that the church did not interfere in Lovell’s trial when it laid out ground rules for what local church leaders could say before they testified as a character witness. Lovell had claimed the witnesses were effectively silenced by the church or never contacted at all by his court appointed attorney.
Lovell had been one of seven inmates on death row in Utah. The overturning of his sentence comes as another death row inmate, Taberon Dave Honie, faces execution by lethal injection on Aug. 8. Honie this week asked Utah’s parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison during a two-day hearing. Relatives of the victims testified in favor of his death. A decision is pending.
The state has not had an execution since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010.
veryGood! (18272)
Related
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- AP PHOTOS: In North America, 2023 was a year for all the emotions
- 2 West Virginia troopers recovering after trading gunfire with suspect who was killed, police say
- Timothée Chalamet Addresses His Buzz-Worthy Date Night With Kylie Jenner at Beyoncé Concert
- NCAA President Charlie Baker would be 'shocked' if women's tournament revenue units isn't passed
- A Frederick Douglass mural in his hometown in Maryland draws some divisions
- Ukraine ends year disappointed by stalemate with Russia, and anxious about aid from allies
- Arizona lawmaker Athena Salman resigning at year’s end, says she will join an abortion rights group
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Australia to send military personnel to help protect Red Sea shipping but no warship
Ranking
- Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
- Oil companies offer $382M for drilling rights in Gulf of Mexico in last offshore sale before 2025
- ICHCOIN Trading Center: Bright Future Ahead
- Mexican business group says closure of US rail border crossings costing $100 million per day
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Real Housewives' Lisa Barlow Shares Teen Son Jack Hospitalized Amid Colombia Mission Trip
- I am just waiting to die: Social Security clawbacks drive some into homelessness
- Immigration helped fuel rise in 2023 US population. Here's where the most growth happened.
Recommendation
British golfer Charley Hull blames injury, not lack of cigarettes, for poor Olympic start
Two railroad crossings are temporarily closed in Texas. Will there be a significant impact on trade?
Federal regulators give more time to complete gas pipeline extension in Virginia, North Carolina
Suriname’s ex-dictator sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 1982 killings of political opponents
Report: Lauri Markkanen signs 5-year, $238 million extension with Utah Jazz
Honda recalls 106,000 CR-V hybrid SUVs because of potential fire risk. Here's what to know.
Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi will host Christmas Day alt-cast of Bucks-Knicks game, per report
Judge weighs request to stop nation’s first execution by nitrogen, in Alabama