20-year-old rape conviction overturned

The Utah Supreme Court has overturned a man's 1988 conviction for raping an American Fork woman, citing a string of errors made by lawyers and the courts.

Justices on Friday said the Utah County Attorney's Office should have been disqualified from prosecuting Carl McClellan because his defense lawyer joined the office three days before his trial.

The high court also cited errors that prevented McClellan's appeal from reaching it earlier.

McClellan was prosecuted for raping a woman he had tried to sell cleaning supplies to as a door-to-door salesman. He was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of first-degree rape.

It was unclear whether prosecutors would seek to retry the case against the now 45-year-old McClellan.