State v. Drommond
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The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for aggravated murder, holding that Defendant was not entitled to a new penalty-phase trial.
Specifically, the Supreme Court held (1) even if Defendant's trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance, Defendant was not prejudiced by that deficiency; (2) any error in admitting certain hearsay statements during trial was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; (3) Defendant was not prejudiced by victim-impact evidence; (4) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to give a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt jury instruction under State v. Lafferty, 749 P.2d 1239 (Utah 1988); and (5) Defendant inadequately briefed his argument under the doctrine of cumulative error.
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