The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the decision made by the Utah Supreme Court to overturn the death sentence of a Utah man convicted of murdering a woman in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him.
The justices declined to hear the case, leaving the lower court’s decision intact. The court did not provide any commentary on why it supported the conviction of Douglas Lovell for the murder of Joyce Yost and then the dismissal of the death sentence.
More than 30 years ago, Lovell was sentenced for abducting and killing Yost so that she couldn’t testify against him in court for raping her, investigators argued. He first pleaded guilty and received a death sentence. But after withdrawing his plea, he admitted guilt again during his second trial but instructed his lawyers to focus on avoiding the death penalty.
In 2021, Lovell challenged his death sentence by arguing that both his legal representation and the influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — from which he was excommunicated —deprived him of a fair trial. However, the 2021 ruling rejected the claim that the church played an improper role.
“This evidence prejudiced Lovell’s ability to have a jury fairly weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors, as Utah’s capital sentencing statute requires, before it sentenced him to death,” the Utah high court had concluded. “Lovell is entitled to a sentencing hearing free from this improper and prejudicial evidence.”
Lovell, 67, was convicted of murder in 2015, marking the second time he was sentenced to death row for killing Yost. He was first charged in 1992, seven years after the killing took place. His then-wife traded immunity for details on Lovell’s murder plot.
Authorities said he initially tried to have two others carry out the killing but ended up doing it himself when that plan fell through.
Yost’s body has never been recovered.