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Death row inmate Michael Anthony Archuleta wants his 1980s murder case reopened, claiming his former attorneys were ineffective.
Archuleta's new attorney, James Slavens, asked the Utah Supreme Court on Wednesday to send the case back to a trial court.
Slavens said Archuleta deserves a whole new trial, or at least a new penalty phase, in light of a 2009 statement from Archuleta's co-defendant, in which he took primary responsibility for the brutal 1988 murder of Gordon Ray Church.
Lance Conway Wood's statement to Slavens in 2009, was a confession given "without hesitation," and one that could have swayed a jury to give Archuleta a life sentence rather than death, Slavens argued.
Slavens also said that the affidavit from Wood was something that Archuleta's previous attorneys could have easily procured during a 2002 post-conviction fight.
Short of a new trial, Slavens believes the high court should set aside an order for summary judgment and reopen at least part of his client's post-conviction case based on a number of ineffective assistance claims.
Slavens argued that Archuleta was present during Church's murder, but did not participate in torturing him. Instead, Slavens said, Archuleta merely carried the man's dead body away from the scene.
Chief Justice Christine Durham said Wood's 2009 confession, which contradicts his sworn testimony in court, might not be enough.
Archuleta's own testimony was "plenty to convict him" of aggravated murder, Durham said. "It's hard to see how a jury would have been swayed by that [additional] evidence if they had it."
Assistant Attorney General Thomas Brunker said Slavens failed to offer proof that Archuleta's attorneys were ineffective, either at trial or during post-conviction stages.
On Nov. 21, 1988, then-parolees Archuleta and Wood drove Church — a 28-year-old Southern Utah University theater student — to a remote location in Millard County. They attached jumper cables to Church's testicles, used the car battery to shock him, raped him with a tire iron, beat him with a car jack and buried him in a shallow grave.
In separate trials, Archuleta and Wood each were convicted of capital murder. Wood was sentenced to life in prison. Archuleta was sentenced to death.
Archuleta's conviction has been upheld by the Utah Supreme Court. A second appeal claiming his trial attorneys and first set of appeal lawyers were ineffective also was rejected.
If the Utah Supreme Court again rejects the ineffective assistance claims, the case would likely be moved to federal court for further appeals, Brunker said.