Court Opinion

ID: 9790475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:53:31.710232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:29.794393
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Associate Chief Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent. I would bring the case on direct review. Because defendant’s right to direct appeal, which the majority concedes may have been violated in this case, is founded in article I, section 12 of the Utah Constitution, this case is distinguishable from Swenson Associates Architects v. State, 889 P.2d 415, 417 (Utah 1994), a case involving a civil appeal. In Boggess v. Morris, 635 P.2d 39, 42-43 (Utah 1981), we sua sponte employed the common law writ of certiorari to bring the record of a criminal case on direct review. We did so for the purpose of avoiding the “needlessly circular” process invoked by the majority in this case. Defendant will now be subjected to the greater burdens and disadvantages attending the civil procedure of *266demonstrating ineffective assistance of counsel rather than being able to immediately pursue his ease under the more expansive rights and privileges attending a direct review, which are guaranteed to him by the Utah Constitution. Requiring defendant to traverse the procedures set forth in Hallett and Johnson is an unnecessary waste of defendant’s, the State’s, and the judicial system’s time, money, and effort.