The Appellate Group

State v. Cartwright

State v. Cartwright, 2026 UT App 78 (Harris, J.)

Criminal Law

The Utah Court of Appeals held:

Trial counsel was not ineffective by (1) not asking for a jury instruction regarding defense-of-others because reasonable counsel could have concluded there was not a reasonable basis in the evidence to support a request for this instruction, (2) not objecting to certain questions the prosecutor asked Girlfriend during direct (and redirect) examination, (3) not seeking admission of medical records for purposes of impeachment because there is not a reasonable probability of a different outcome in a hypothetical trial in which the jury had seen the medical records.

Read the full court opinion