Niner
Long time Websleuther
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2003
- Messages
- 86,637
- Reaction score
- 291,540
I had to put this link into Outline....
Lawyers for Ogden couple charged with killing their toddler argue Utah's death penalty is unconstitutional
May 11, 2020
OGDEN — An Ogden judge is being urged to declare Utah’s death penalty unconstitutional because, attorneys in a capital homicide case argue, the sentencing portion of the law shifts the burden of proof to defendants.
Aggravating factors already have been decided at trial, thereby putting the onus on the defense during the sentencing phase, an attorney representing Miller Costello, 28, asserted in a motion filed April 17 in 2nd District Court.
[.....]
In a further motion filed April 21, Marshall asked the court to “preclude the use of aggravating circumstances in the penalty phase of defendant’s trial which duplicate elements of the underlying aggravated murder charge.”
Weber County Attorney Chris Allred on Friday declined to comment on the latest defense motions. He said his staff was working on responses to be filed before a scheduled May 22 hearing before Judge Michael DiReda.
On Feb. 29, Costello’s defense filed a related motion urging DiReda to strike the death penalty because “it has become cruel and unusual punishment by practice and the consensus of the Utah citizenry.”
Lawyers for Ogden couple charged with killing their toddler argue Utah's death penalty is unconstitutional
May 11, 2020
OGDEN — An Ogden judge is being urged to declare Utah’s death penalty unconstitutional because, attorneys in a capital homicide case argue, the sentencing portion of the law shifts the burden of proof to defendants.
Aggravating factors already have been decided at trial, thereby putting the onus on the defense during the sentencing phase, an attorney representing Miller Costello, 28, asserted in a motion filed April 17 in 2nd District Court.
[.....]
In a further motion filed April 21, Marshall asked the court to “preclude the use of aggravating circumstances in the penalty phase of defendant’s trial which duplicate elements of the underlying aggravated murder charge.”
Weber County Attorney Chris Allred on Friday declined to comment on the latest defense motions. He said his staff was working on responses to be filed before a scheduled May 22 hearing before Judge Michael DiReda.
On Feb. 29, Costello’s defense filed a related motion urging DiReda to strike the death penalty because “it has become cruel and unusual punishment by practice and the consensus of the Utah citizenry.”