Lance Wood has lost an appeal of his first-degree murder conviction for the 1988 torture and murder of Gordon Church.
In a 3-2 decision made public Tuesday, the Utah Supreme Court rejected Wood's appeal, allowing his life sentence to stand. Last fall, Wood's accomplice, Michael Arch-uleta, also lost his appeal. Archuleta has been sentenced to die for the kidnap, rape and torture of Church.Wood appealed his conviction for three reasons. He claimed: two jurors should have been excluded because they believed in blood atonement, statements he made after asking for a lawyer should not have been admitted at trial and he should not have been sentenced for aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault as well as the murder.
Wood also claimed that the evidence at trial did not support his conviction on first-degree murder. Wood claims he stayed in the car while Archuleta tortured and murdered Church. However, blood splatters on Wood's clothes suggest he was nearby during the murder, the ruling says.
Wood claims the two jurors' beliefs would have prompted them to impose the death penalty instead of a life sentence. Both men are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and know of blood atonement, which means atoning for the murder of someone by spilling one's own blood, the appeal said.
The court had earlier ruled that any potential juror whose beliefs require him to always impose the death penalty for murder must be banned from a jury.
Jurors need to be able to apply the law to a case without partiality for or against the death penalty, the court said in a 1983 ruling.
In Tuesday's ruling, the majority of the justices concluded that a generalized approval of the death penalty is not enough to warrant exclusion from a jury.
The two jurors made it clear under questioning that their general belief in blood atonement did not mean the death penalty should be imposed in every case, the justices concluded.
However, one juror's belief in the death penalty was so strong that the "judge was at the very limit of his discretion" in allowing the juror to remain on the jury, the ruling says.
The court also ruled that statements Wood made to a law enforcement officer when he took officers to the murder scene could be used against him.
Wood was not in custody at the time, the court ruled. Wood's Miranda rights only apply if he is in custody.
The court also ruled that Wood only made an ambiguous reference to counsel, wondering aloud if he should hire a lawyer at some point to help him get into the federal protective witness program.
When the officer asked Wood if he wanted an attorney "for questioning purposes right now," Wood said, "no" and continued talking.
That exchange does not constitute a request for an attorney during questioning, the justices ruled.
The five justices split on the question of whether Wood should also have been separately sentenced for kidnapping and sexual assault.
Justices I. Daniel Stewart, Gordon R. Hall and Christine M. Durham upheld the separate convictions. Justices Michael D. Zimmerman and Richard Wood dissented.