Utah prison officials say they have fixed a records issue that led to a plea deal in a death penalty case and infuriated a judge, but defense attorneys for another inmate facing execution say they are still struggling to get information they deem vital.
Both cases involve a death inside Utah prison walls — one at the Gunnison facility and the other at the Department of Corrections’ main prison in Draper. Both defendants faced the death penalty.
But Steven Crutcher, who strangled his cellmate in 2013 in Gunnison, avoided execution earlier this year after his defense attorney discovered that the prison had withheld nearly 1,600 pages of medical records.