Killer asks court for new trial

A death-row inmate, convicted after being caught on surveillance video stabbing another inmate 67 times, is telling the Utah Supreme Court that he did not receive a fair trial.

Even though Troy Michael Kell claims his defense attorneys did not adequately defend him at trial, an appeals attorney on Wednesday admitted to justices that he struggled to find something to argue to them just to keep his client alive.

An attorney for the state said Kell's history of extreme violence is what ultimately earned him the death penalty.

From the outset of oral arguments on Wednesday, justices said they were having trouble understanding where Kell thought the trial court was prejudiced against him. The justices asked Kell's attorney, Aric Cramer, to provide examples.

Cramer admitted that he could not really provide any specific examples but said this was a difficult case and he felt "obligated" to bring the case to the Supreme Court to keep his client alive.

Justice Michael Wilkins asked Cramer if he also had an obligation to make the court's time worthwhile.

Cramer responded that he would rather risk being sanctioned by the court for making frivolous arguments than risk missing some issue that could prove legitimate.

Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker said nothing Kell's defense attorneys would have done could have spared him the death penalty given Kell's violent criminal history in and out of prison.

Kell was initially given a life sentence without parole in Nevada for shooting James Kelly six times in the face. He was then moved to the Utah State Prison in Gunnison. While there, Kell fatally stabbed Lonnie Blackmon 67 times, including 26 times in the face, 27 times in the neck and nine times in the eyes.

Kell, who professes to be a white-supremacist, then strutted around yelling "white power" and racist epithets.

During a special trial held inside the Gunnison prison due to security concerns, a jury found Kell guilty of capital murder in 1996. During the sentencing phase, jurors were given a rundown of Kell's violent history, which included assaults not only on other inmates but also prison guards and included death threats to guards.

Jurors were told Kell had burned one guard with hot liquid, head-butted another and did not stop assaulting a black inmate until a guard shot him in the legs.

After hearing his history, the jury imposed the death penalty.

Brunker said Kell's defense attorneys filed numerous motions challenging the case against him, but there was little they could do to mitigate Kell's criminal history.

The Supreme Court will issue a written opinion in the coming months. This is the second time Kell's case has gone before the Supreme Court. In 2002, the court upheld his conviction and death penalty sentence.

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