SALT LAKE CITY?Elroy Tillman’s rights to a fair trial were not violated when prosecutors cited Mormon beliefs to the jury and allegedly withheld transcripts from the defense, the state argues in opposing a new trial for Utah’s oldest death-row inmate.

The state petition, filed Feb. 19, is a response to claims made by Tillman’s lawyers that prosecutor Michael Christensen withheld key evidence and later made improper references to doctrine and ritual of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Tillman’s 1983 murder trial.

Tillman was sentenced to die for killing Mark Schoenfeld, who was bludgeoned with an ax and left to die in a burning bed in his Salt Lake City home.