Utah Supreme Court overturns death sentence for man convicted of murder in rape cover-up

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence for a man convicted in the murder of a woman to stop her from testifying against him in a rape case. Justices said Douglas Lovell had ineffective attorneys at his 2015 sentencing hearing. They upheld his conviction and sent the case back to a lower court for resentencing. Lovell has twice been convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost. 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.