The Utah Court of Appeals will be taking another look at the case of Michael Waddell Johnson, who was convicted in 2010 of first-degree felony murder in the death of his former common-law wife.
In July 2014, the Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision overturning Johnson’s conviction based on a misstatement in a jury instruction and sent the case back to 3rd District Court for a new trial.
But the state appealed and on Tuesday, the Utah Supreme Court reversed the decision in a 5-0 opinion. The opinion said the Court of Appeals was precluded from reviewing the jury instruction because that issue had not been raised at trial or argued on appeal.