Myers, now 30, pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder in February 1996. In exchange, Summit County prosecutors dismissed the second murder charge and agreed to a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

York argues in court documents that it was Myers' "self-preservation instinct" that led him to waive his right to trial and accept the deal.

'Stacked' charges?

It certainly is not unusual for capital murder defendants in Utah to avoid the death penalty through plea agreements.

A look at some recent high-profile death-penalty cases — the January murder of Garfield County sheriff's deputy Dave Jones, the July 2001 killing of Roosevelt Police Chief Cecil Gurr and the April 2000 shooting spree at Chevys Fresh Mex Restaurant in Sandy — all resulted in plea deals. And each of the defendants — Earl Leston Barnes, Lee Roy Wood and Quinn Robert Martinez, respectively — received sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Garfield County Attorney Wallace Lee, who led the prosecution against Barnes, said he often hears complaints that prosecutors "stack" charges against defendants as a way to coerce them into accepting plea agreements.

"I honestly don't think that's a valid claim," Lee said. "The prosecutors that I know and have dealt with would charge the maximum that they think they could prove, but I don't think they would charge it just as a means of getting a plea bargain."

National and state standards require prosecutors to charge only what they are confident they can prove at trial, Lee said.

Former prosecutor Greg Skordas said offering plea deals to capital murder defendants is often a double-edged sword. It avoids the complexities and expense of a capital-murder trial, but also leaves community members thinking prosecutors are soft on crime.

"Unfortunately, the public perception is always a problem," said Skordas, now one of the state's leading defense attorneys. "They think that a prosecutor is weak when in fact usually that's the smarter thing to do."

Lee agreed: "There's so many different dynamics. . . . It creates a whole new battleground in the law."

In the Barnes case, the decision to offer a plea deal was not made by prosecutors alone. They met with Jones' wife to make sure she was comfortable with the offer and the removal of the death penalty as a punishment option.

Aggravating factors

For a person to be charged with capital murder under Utah law, there must be an aggravating factor in addition to the underlying murder. For instance, if the murder is committed during the commission of another crime, such as kidnapping or robbery, that can be a basis for such a charge.