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Prison Officials Review 74 Cases After Death-Penalty Blunder

Utah State Prison; Prison officials review 74 cases after death-penalty blunder.
corrections.utah.gov
Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah.

Utah prison officials say they've reviewed 74 court cases involving inmate medical records after the department failed to produce documents in a death-penalty case.

The probe came after Judge Wallace Lee called for an investigation into the Department of Corrections' handing of the case of 36-year-old Steven Crutcher, who had once faced capital punishment in the death of his cellmate.

Crutcher took a plea deal last month after Department of Corrections' failure to produce 1,600 pages of medical records that his lawyers called key to his defense.

State attorneys apologized to the judge and prison officials contacted lawyers in the 74 active cases involving medical records to see if all documentation had been produced.

Prison officials say all but about 12 of those cases have now been resolved.