The Supreme Court declined to review a Utah state court decision that overturned the death sentence of a man convicted of murdering a woman to prevent her from testifying against him in a rape case. The case involves Douglas Lovell, who was convicted of killing Joyce Yost in 1985. Lovell attempted to hire individuals to kill Yost to stop her from testifying against him on rape charges. When his plan failed, he abducted and strangled her himself.
The Utah Supreme Court upheld Lovell's murder conviction but overturned his death sentence. The court found that Lovell's attorneys during his 2015 sentencing did not adequately address testimony related to his excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church. This oversight prevented jurors from fully considering the evidence before sentencing Lovell to death.
In a separate ruling in 2021, a state judge determined that the church did not interfere in Lovell's trial when establishing guidelines for local church leaders who testified as character witnesses. Lovell had alleged that these witnesses were either silenced by the church or not contacted by his court-appointed attorney.
