Utah Supreme Court to hear appeal of Debra Brown release

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the state’s appeal of a ruling that exonerated a Logan woman and set her free after she served 17 years in prison for murder.

Oral arguments are set Tuesday morning involving Debra Brown, released from Utah State Prison in May 2011.

She was the first inmate freed under a 2008 Utah law that allows convictions to be overturned based on new factual — not scientific — evidence.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff initially said he would not appeal Brown’s release but later flip-flopped because he believed the judge had wrongly interpreted the law.

Attorneys representing Brown say the key issue is whether exoneration must be based exclusively on newly discovered evidence or all the evidence available to the judge.