State v. Merrill

NEHRING, Justice:

¶ 1 This case presents the questions of whether Utah Code section 77-13-6(2)(b) creates a jurisdictional bar to a criminal defendant’s withdrawal of a guilty plea, and whether the thirty-day limitation in which a plea must be withdrawn is unconstitutional. We hold that the bar is jurisdictional and constitutionally permissible.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On October 29,1998, Scott Joseph Merrill hid among rocks overlooking a road upon which Charles Watterson, an employee of Emery County, was operating a road grader. When Mr. Watterson approached Mr. Merrill’s location, Mr. Merrill…