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Sean D. Reyes
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Utah Supreme Court Affirms Murder Conviction of Glenn Howard Griffin

More than 30 years after the murder of Bradley Perry,
Utah’s highest court unanimously confirmed the First Degree Conviction of his killer

SALT LAKE CITY July 28, 2016 – More than 30 years after the murder of Bradley Perry, the Utah Supreme Court affirmed the first degree murder conviction of Glenn Howard Griffin in a unanimous decision written by Justice Constandinos Himonas (State v. Griffin, 2016 UT 33). The ruling comes after a long legal process that included a month-long trial, a 23B hearing, almost 200 hundred pages of briefs and three oral arguments.

“We are pleased with the Utah Supreme Court’s decision to affirm Mr. Griffin’s conviction,” said Attorney General Sean Reyes.  “Even after three decades, Bradley Perry and his family deserve justice and closure. This ruling demonstrates that the legal system works and that we will pursue criminals until justice is served. My sincere congratulations to Assistant Solicitor General John Nielsen for his tireless efforts and articulate advocacy on this case, as well as to Laura Dupaix, Tom Brunker, Erin Riley, Chris Ballard, and Tyler Green for their role during the editing and mooting process. Thank you also to Steve Hadfield and Blair Wardle from Box Elder County, who helped during the 23B remand hearing.”

Case Background

Bradley Perry was working the late shift at the Texaco gas station in Perry, Utah near Brigham City on the night of May 25, 1984.  Early in the morning of May 26, he was tied up in the back room, severely beaten, strangled, stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver and what was most likely a knife, and his head crushed by a soda canister.  

Earlier that same morning, two Utah State students stopped for gas at the Perry Texaco and encountered a lean, dark-haired man who offered to pump their gas and get cigarettes for them.  One student paid for the gas with five one-dollar bills. The other student paid for cigarettes with a five dollar bill, and got change from the one-dollar bills that his friend had just given the purported attendant.  One of those bills had “wet” “fresh” “damp” blood on it.

For more than 20 years, police interviewed hundreds of suspects in the hunt for Perry’s killer, but found no solid leads.  A break came when DNA testing technology advanced to the point that the crime lab could test the small amount of blood on the bill, discovering that the blood belonged to Griffin.  Additionally, the State was able to test hairs that had been collected from the scene using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing.  Griffin could not be excluded as a contributor of those hairs, though about 99.94% of the rest of humanity could be excluded. Further, one of the students drew a picture of the suspect that matched Griffin’s appearance in 1984.

Although the State sought the death penalty, the jury in the case imposed life without parole (LWOP) on Griffin.  On appeal Griffin argued various grounds for reversal, but the court found none of them persuasive.  The DNA evidence was admissible, rendering any other errors harmless at best. 

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