https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/3/13/22308219/judge-rejects-death-row-inmate-ineffective-counsel-claim-douglas-lovell-murder-yost-church-meddling

"A former Latter-day Saint bishop who worked in the prison, John “Jack” Newton, said at the 2019 hearing that church leadership suggested it would be preferable if he did not testify on behalf of Lovell at the 2015 trial.

DiReda determined the church hadn’t meddled in the case. He wrote that Lovell agreed to call only three of the five ecclesiastical leaders he’d originally sought to have testify after lawyers representing them had threatened to file a motion to quash subpoenas if all five were called to take the stand.

“It was Kirton McConkie (church’s law firm) doing their job representing ecclesiastical leaders for the church, former bishops,” attorney Mark Field, an appellate lawyer in the Utah Attorney General’s Office representing the state, told the Deseret News. “There was nothing strange about any of that.”

I remember the church getting into legal trouble with the state of either Maryland or West Virginia when that kid who was a serial sex abuser was being investigated. Kirton McConkie guys came out and told the members not to talk to law enforcement about it. Turns out that that is interfering with the investigation. Who knew? Everybody. Still, KM, of all people, had to know it was illegal, but they did it anyway.

Hello, State of Utah. I'm a defendant in an action in which part of my defense involves having five mormon church officials subpoenaed to testify for me.

   Hi, State of Utah. We're attorneys representing five mormon officials who may be called on to testify. We want you and the defendant to know that if all five are called, we will move to quash all five subpoenas!

Really? How about if I just subpoena four of them?

   Hmmm... Nope, we'll still move to quash the four subpoenas!

Okay, how about if I just subpoena three of them?

   Well, that's more like it! We have no problem with just three of them...



Color me incredulous, but I don't think that's how it went. It only makes sense to me that someone was trying to hide something and that it meant keeping at least one of the witnesses off the stand. Obviously the church was okay with the three witnesses who ended up being called... Not pushing for all five? If I were a defendant, I'd want all five.

Well, perhaps the church was most worried about the two who were stricken. That way the judge can assert his independence from the LDS church and the church achieves its ends.

Everybody's happy, right?