Shurtleff explains 'emotional' flip-flop in Debra Brown innocence appeal

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Attorney General's Office formally announced Thursday it will appeal the ruling that determined a Logan woman was factually innocent, releasing her from prison after 17 years in custody.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff explained at a news conference — in which he was backed by 26 of the state's 29 county attorneys — that he was caught up in the emotion of the moment May 9 when Brown was released. His office had announced that day that it would appeal the ruling, but hours later Shurtleff announced over his Twitter account that his office would not appeal.

"It was very emotional, highly charged," he said Thursday. "Many felt in their hearts that enough was enough and I was one of those."

He said he had not closely studied the facts of the case when he made the announcement retracting the planned appeal. After reviewing the case and speaking with concerned county attorneys, he decided an appeal was necessary.

"When it comes to proving guilt or innocence, you have to lay emotion aside. ... It's based on fact and law. That's it," Shurtleff said. 

In 1995, Brown was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for shooting her employer and friend, Lael Brown, 75. The man was found dead in his home with three gunshot wounds to his head.

Prosecutors argue that police found no sign of forced entry, that whoever shot Lael Brown would have known where the man kept his gun and would have had motive to take a single bank statement that was determined to be missing. That bank statement also happened to have canceled checks that Debra Brown had forged and signed, assistant attorney general Laura Dupaix said.   

But Brown was deemed factually innocent by 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda after an extensive hearing on evidence in the case. DiReda said in his ruling he was not initially convinced of the woman's innocence. But he reviewed the original trial record and noticed an entry about a man, Del Hall, who had been listed as a potential witness, but hadn't been questioned at trial.

He called attorneys back in and invited them to present more evidence, including about the testimony of Hall — who testified that he saw Lael Brown at a Logan coffee shop hours after prosecutors argued he had been killed by Debra Brown.

Don Linton, a chief deputy attorney in the Cache County Attorney's Office, was one of two prosecutors who handled the murder trial. He said Hall was on the defense witness list, but defense attorneys never used him. When inquired as to why, he was told "(Hall) was a bad witness."