Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has joined 38 other attorneys general in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the right to a speedy trial.

The Utah Attorney General's Office said Wednesday it has filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the nation's highest court to strike down a Vermont Supreme Court ruling that said a judge could count pre-trial delays by a court-appointed defense attorney, because public defenders are an "arm of the state."

The Utah Attorney General's Office said in a statement that the Vermont ruling could "thwart justice by causing the government to lose its ability to prosecute a criminal based on the 'unwillingness' of a public defender to move the case forward."

"The unintended consequence of this approach will be indigent defendants who are prematurely rushed to trial in order to foreclose potential speedy trial claims," the attorney general's office said.

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case in January.

— Ben Winslow