The defense attorney for condemned child killer John Albert Taylor urged the Utah Supreme Court on Monday to overturn Taylor's death penalty and give him a new trial.
Attorney Ed Brass argued that Taylor did not receive adequate representation from his attorneys and didn't understand the implications when he decided to waive a jury trial and have his case heard only by a judge.The high court took the matter under advisement.
Taylor is on death row for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Charla King, who was found by her mother in their Washington Terrace apartment June 23, 1989. The girl had been strangled with a telephone cord and had her underpants stuffed down her throat.
The girl's mother, Sherron King, called for the high court to reject the appeal - which it has already done once - and expedite Taylor's execution.
"He took a little girl's life in a horrible manner," King told the Standard-Examiner in a copyright story published Monday. "He has no right to a life of his own."
Taylor, who was living in the same apartment complex, was arrested a week after the killing. He told police that he had burglarized the apartment, found the girl's body and fled. He denied that he killed her.
He was tried before 2nd District Judge David E. Roth after waiving a jury and convicted of capital homicide. The judge also heard evidence during a penalty hearing and imposed the death penalty.
Brass argued that Taylor had been given bad advice by his lawyers in both instances. He said his client was confused about his right to have a jury decide the penalty even after he had been found guilty by the judge.
"There was a professional standard out there that was not adhered to in this case," he told the five justices.
Prosecutors, however, argued that the issue of adequate representation is a moot point in Taylor's case. "There is not a single piece of concrete evidence that counsel's performance in any way affected the outcome of this case," argued Assistant Utah Attorney General Tom Brunker.
The qualification of defense attorneys in capital homicide trials has been a sticky point in the Utah criminal justice system.