Court of Appeals hears challenge to obstruction conviction over missing unanimity instruction and witness unavailability

The Utah Court of Appeals heard oral argument in State v. Medina on whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request a unanimity instruction on an obstruction charge and whether the trial court properly found a key witness unavailable under Utah Rule of Evidence 804.

Appellant counsel Rachel Phillips Zainzkopf told the three-judge panel that trial counsel’s omission was unreasonable because the state presented multiple, discrete acts that could each have supported the obstruction count and the jury was never asked to be unanimous about which act it relied on. "It was unreasonable for counsel to ask for an instruction that the jury be unanimous as to the specific act," Zainzkopf said, urging that omission risked conviction on an undistinguished bundle of acts rather than a single agreed-upon act.

Deputy…