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Salt Lake County prosecutors have moved to dismiss the state case against Brian David Mitchell, who was sentenced in federal court last month to life in prison for kidnapping and sexually assaulting Elizabeth Smart.
"As we weighed all the things together, we recognized that this was the right thing to do," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Wednesday. "It helps us to bring closure to the family and have them move on with their lives. It brings closure to our community."
The motion, filed this week in 3rd District Court by Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Alicia Cook, comes about two weeks before Mitchell's defense attorneys must decide whether to appeal the federal conviction.
But Elizabeth Smart's father, Ed Smart, said his family would rather take their chances with a federal appeal than continue with the case in state court for fear that Mitchell, who has been found incompetent to stand trial in that case, could be released from the state hospital.
"The way things stand, I feel like if this case were to ever come back to Utah, we would be in an even worse position," Ed Smart said.
As his cause for concern, Ed Smart pointed to the recent release of Lonnie Johnson, a convicted sex offender who was discharged from the state hospital despite the fact he was facing 20 new child sex abuse counts in Utah County.
"As far as I'm concerned, they could pull the same thing," Ed Smart said.
State court officials said Mitchell's defense attorneys have until July 12 to file a response to the motion to dismiss. Mitchell's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The state must then file a "request to submit for decision" to the court, at which time 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton will determine whether to sign the order to dismiss.
In 2003, Mitchell was charged in state court with eight felonies, including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual assault for kidnapping Smart, then 14 years old, at knife-point from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home in the early hours of June 5, 2002.
The state case, however, soon fell into limbo due to questions about Mitchell's mental competency.
Based on testimony from medical experts, Atherton in 2003 declared Mitchell incompetent to stand trial. Mitchell was sent to the Utah State Hospital for treatment, but refused all efforts by doctors to restore him to competency.
Three years later, in October 2008, Atherton denied a prosecution motion to forcibly medicate Mitchell.
Federal prosecutors later took a fresh approach to the competency issue.
By using lay witnesses — family members, friends and staffers at the State Hospital, as well as mental health experts — prosecutors convinced Judge Dale Kimball that Mitchell was indeed competent.
At trial last year, defense attorneys claimed Mitchell suffers from religious delusions and was insane when he kidnapped Smart, and during the subsequent nine months of the girl's captivity, when Mitchell raped her almost daily.
Following a December trial, jurors said that while they felt Mitchell, 57, has mental health issues, he was not insane at the time he committed the crimes.
With Mitchell still deemed incompetent to stand trial in state court, the District Attorney said pursuing another conviction would require a "long, intensive process" that ultimately could achieve "no additional measure of justice." Gill said the Smart family expressed a desire to "move on with their lives."
Smart was rescued March 12, 2003, when local residents spotted her on a Sandy sidewalk with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee.
Barzee, 65, is serving a 15-year term at a federal prison in Texas for her part in Smart's abduction.
A federal judge gave Barzee credit for the seven years she had already spent either at the Utah State Hospital or the Salt Lake County jail. Barzee's federal time is running concurrently with a one-to-15-year state conviction for the July 2002 attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin.
Barzee will be eligible for state parole in 2018, but she could remain in prison until 2024.