Kell v. Benzon
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In the case before the Supreme Court of the State of Utah, the appellant, Troy Michael Kell, appealed the district court's dismissal of his second petition for post-conviction relief. Kell, while serving a life sentence for murder, had stabbed another inmate to death in 1994. He was convicted of aggravated murder, a capital offense, and sentenced to death. Following his conviction, Kell filed a petition for post-conviction relief which was dismissed by the district court.
Years later, during federal habeas corpus proceedings, Kell's attorneys discovered evidence that three jurors from his trial had communicated with the judge during sentencing deliberations without Kell or either party’s counsel present. One of these jurors remembered the judge stating that it was Kell’s burden to convince the jury that his life should be spared. This new evidence formed the basis of Kell’s second petition for post-conviction relief which he filed in 2018, over five years after the evidence was discovered.
The district court dismissed Kell's petition, applying the time and procedural limitations under the Post-Conviction Remedies Act (PCRA) and rule 65C of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. Kell argued on appeal that the district court erred in dismissing his petition based on these limitations. He claimed that his delay in filing was due to ineffective assistance of initial post-conviction counsel and that applying the PCRA’s time and procedural bars violated his rights under the Suspension Clause, Due Process Clause, and Open Courts Clause of the Utah Constitution.
The Supreme Court of the State of Utah affirmed the district court's decision. The court held that Kell had not shown that any shortcoming of his initial post-conviction counsel excuses the five and a half year delay in bringing this claim after discovering the alleged improper communication between the trial judge and jurors. The court also held that Kell had not demonstrated that the application of the PCRA’s time and procedural bars to his claim violated his constitutional rights. He was unable to show that the application of these bars prevented him from challenging his detention or left him unable to vindicate his substantive rights.
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