By Associated Press - Tuesday, December 29, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it didn’t improperly meddle in a death row inmate’s 2015 trial when it laid out ground rules for what local church leaders could say before they testified as character witnesses for the man.

Church attorneys said in a Dec. 8 filing the faith had no interest in whether Douglas Lovell was granted a new trial, but had outside lawyers working on the church’s behalf explain to local church leaders who had been meeting with Lovell in prison that they didn’t have authority to speak on behalf of the church and that church policy “discouraged” them from testifying for people they had ministered to unless they are subpoenaed, FOX 13 reported Saturday.

Lawyers from the firm Kirton McConkie did not interfere or obstruct witness testimony, church lawyers David J. Jordan and Jordan C. Bledsoe contend in the filing.

“The attorneys did not tell the former leaders that their church membership would be in jeopardy if they testified, did not ask or direct the former leaders to testify in a particular way, and did not tell the leaders they could not testify,” Jordan and Bledsoe wrote.

Lovell, 62, is appealing the guilty verdict in the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost based on the contention the church interfered in his trial and that he didn’t receive adequate legal representation.

Lovell’s appeal attorney accuses the church of pressuring the local leaders to choose between membership in the faith or testifying about their interactions with Lovell out of concern that their testimony could make it seem like church representatives approved of a murderer.

He asked the lay clergy to testify at the 2015 trial in an effort to bolster his claim that he had been rehabilitated in prison.

His appeal is the latest move in more than three decades of legal wrangling in the case.

Lovell pleaded guilty to the murder in 1993. In a plea agreement that would have removed the death penalty, he said he would show authorities the location of Yost’s body. The body was never found and the agreement was voided, but Lovell still pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to death.

In 2011, the Utah Supreme Court allowed Lovell to withdraw his guilty plea. He was then convicted at trial and again sentenced to death. Lovell killed Yost to prevent her from testifying after he had been charged with raping her, according to court documents.

The state Supreme Court in 2017 heard the case again and sent it back to a district court to determine if Lovell’s attorneys did their jobs properly and if the church asked ecclesiastical leaders to not testify.

Second District Court Judge Michael DiReda wants to hear from prosecutors and Lovell’s defense attorneys before he makes a ruling that is expected by the end of January.

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