Our Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, hopes to limit post-conviction relief. Yet his office is the delay in my appeal. On June 3, 2009, I filed the brief in my appeal with the Utah Court of Appeals. The State’s brief was due on September 4, 2009; after requesting and receiving two separate 30 day extensions.

And on September 1, 2009, just three days before their brief was due, the State filed for yet another extension. If the Court grants their enlargement, the State will have had 104 days to file its brief. Instead of bitching about the slow turning wheels of justice, maybe Shurtleff should get his own house in order and crack the whip on his people. Someone down there should have fire in his, or in my case her, belly.

But Mrs. Laura Dupaix—the Assistant Attorney General assigned to my case—seems more fixated on pulling heart strings than doing her job. For the third time in a row, she’s invoked her husband’s—Leslie Warren Dupaix—“long-term debilitating medical condition.”

While I’m sympathetic to illness, especially one plaguing family, I’m completely unsympathetic to the undignified manner in which Mrs. Dupaix uses her husband’s affliction as an excuse. Beyond the poor taste, why would one feel it socially acceptable to display her family’s ailments in writing for the world to see?

The answer is obvious: dignity won’t get her an extension. Simply stating that “a personal matter,” or a “family emergency” prevented her from doing her job sounds weak and contrived. But swallowing all pride to tell strangers that your husband has chronic disease, especially one you need to attend to, really let’s people know that you were in a tight spot.

So Mrs. Dupaix, you’ve won at least two 30 day extensions—and have a chance with another—at the expense of your self-respect and your hubsand’s privacy. Congratulations.