This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Brian David Mitchell's eight-year court saga is finally finished.
Third District Judge Judith Atherton on Tuesday signed an order dismissing state kidnapping and sexual abuse charges that were filed after Elizabeth Smart's rescue in March 2003.
The state case had been in legal limbo for years because of issues surrounding Mitchell's mental competency.
In federal court, meanwhile, Mitchell was found competent, tried before a jury, convicted of crimes against Smart and sentenced to life in prison.
On Monday, the federal case officially concluded when defense attorneys declared they would not appeal his conviction, saying Mitchell did not want continue the court fight.
Salt Lake County prosecutors this month moved to dismiss their state case against Mitchell. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has called dropping the case "the right thing to do" and said doing so helps bring "closure to our community."
Gill said that pursuing another conviction would require a "long, intensive process" that ultimately could achieve "no additional measure of justice." Gill added that the Smart family expressed a desire to "move on with their lives."
In 2002, Mitchell kidnapped then-14-year-old Smart from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint. Smart was found with Mitchell and his wife, Eileen Barzee, nine months later.
In 2003, Mitchell was charged in state court with eight felonies, including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual assault.
The state case stalled over questions of Mitchell's mental competency. And in 2005, Atherton declared the man incompetent to stand trial. Mitchell was ordered to the Utah State Hospital for treatment but refused to comply with efforts to restore his mental state. Atherton denied a 2008 motion by prosecutors to forcibly medicate Mitchell.
Federal prosecutors then took on the case and successfully argued to U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball that Mitchell was competent, in part by providing a slew of lay-witnesses who testified Mitchell acted fairly normally when not being observed by doctors.
At Mitchell's federal trial, which concluded in December, defense attorneys claimed Mitchell suffered from religious delusions and said he was insane at the time he kidnapped Smart and during her nine months of captivity. Jurors rejected that theory.