Testimony describing a defendant invoking constitutional rights is improper.
But Morrison's defense attorney, the prosecutor and the 2nd District judge twice allowed the offending testimony into the trial. As a result, the Utah Court of Appeals has reversed Morrison's guilty verdicts and ordered a new trial. The decision could spell trouble for Millard County prosecutors who elicited similarly improper testimony last June in the unrelated murder trial of Larry Ross Harmon. On precisely the same grounds that won Morrison a new trial, Harmon is appealing his conviction for the 1995 fatal shooting and wounding of two stranded motorists. He is serving two consecutive terms of up to 5 years for drug and weapon violations.