To hear David Franklin Young's attorneys tell it, nothing went right during a 1989 trial that resulted in Young's conviction for the 1987 murder of a Kearns nurse.
Young, a three-time killer, has been sentenced to die for the torture slaying of Ember Kimberly Mars, 27.But his attorneys told the Utah Supreme Court Wednesday that Young should be given a new trial because there were no Hispanics on Young's jury and the judge did not tell the jury it could find Young guilty but mentally ill.
Young also wants a new penalty hearing because he was shackled during part of the hearing, the judge would not allow him to make a statement to the jury and the jury was told it could not decide Young's sentence based on mere sympathy.
Young confessed to raping, beating, stabbing and suffocating Mars in her home on Aug. 19, 1987. Young has also been convicted of murdering his wife.
Young argued for a new trial and penalty hearing because:
- Young's jury did not represent Salt Lake County's minority population, particularly the Hispanic group. Young's attorney, Karen Stam, told the court Salt Lake County's jury selection system was "in complete disarray" at the time of Young's trial and violated state law.
Young's jury was chosen from a pool of 1,400 people. Nearly 5 percent of the 1,400 people were Hispanic, but many of those people were improperly disqualified for jury duty by a court clerk, Young's attorneys said.
"If the questionnaire asked `Can you read, speak or understand English?' and the person marked `yes' but wrote in the margin `not very well,' the clerk would take it upon himself to disqualify the juror," Stam said.
The clerk disqualified one Hispanic woman when her husband wrote, "In my opinion, my wife would not understand the judicial system well enough to be a juror," Stam said.
Sociological studies show that Hispanics generally do not believe in the death penalty, Stam said. So Young was damaged by not having Hispanics on his jury.
Assistant Utah Attorney General Sandra Sjogren argued that the pool of 1,400 people from which Young's jury was selected was 4.3 percent Hispanic. That nearly mirrors the size (4.6 percent) of the county's Hispanic population. As long as the larger jury pool reflects the minority populations, those who show up for jury duty or those chosen for jury duty do not have to represent those populations.
- 3rd District Judge Timothy Hanson did not tell jurors they could find Young guilty but mentally ill. Young requested a guilty/mentally ill verdict. Joan C. Watt, Young's second attorney, argued that if the jury had found Young guilty/mentally ill, he may not have received the death penalty.
Sjogren argued that Young did not use a mental illness defense in his trial. If he does not use a mental illness defense, the judge is not required to offer the mentally ill verdict option to the jury.
- Young was shackled during the latter part of his penalty-phase hearing. When jurors saw him shackled, they could reasonably assume he had done something violent part-way through the hearing and that conclusion may have encouraged the jury to select a death penalty, Watts said.
Sjogren said the shackling did not influence the jury. Young did not attend most of his penalty hearing. The jury saw him shackled only briefly. Since the man, who weighs about 300 pounds, had just been convicted of a brutal slaying, jurors would have expected Young to be shackled.
- Young was not allowed to make a statement to the jury during the penalty hearing. Although jurors were told that he had the mental age of a 10-year-old, if they had heard Young speak they would have better understood his limitations, Watt said.
Instead, Hanson allowed Young's attorney to read his statement to the jury.
Sjogren argued that Young had an opportunity to speak before the jury. When Young asked Hanson if he could read a statement to the jury, Hanson told him no but said Young could take the stand and testify instead. Young declined.