How do I get date from datetime in SQL

I created a simple scalar function in SQL that takes in the date as a string and restricts it to 23 characters. Then a CONVERT to datetime is used if the string is not null or empty. Then everywhere I have a date coming in I wrap this function around it.

Example:

SELECT [dbo].GetFormattedDate('2013-07-01T14:27:00.434')
,[dbo].GetFormattedDate('')
,[dbo].GetFormattedDate(NULL)
,[dbo].GetFormattedDate('2013-07-01T14:27:00.434Z')
,[dbo].GetFormattedDate('2013-07-01T14:27:00.434445Z')
,[dbo].GetFormattedDate('2013-07-01')

Function Code:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GetFormattedDate] 
(  
    @p_DateString varchar(23)  
)
RETURNS datetime 
AS
BEGIN  

/* 
Notice that the in parameter truncates all datetime values to 23 characters
Which would truncate the date time to the thousandths place of the milliseconds
*/
DECLARE @returnDatetime as datetime;

IF ((@p_DateString IS NULL) OR (@p_DateString = '')) 
    BEGIN
        /* Return null is string is empty or null already */
        SET @returnDatetime = NULL;
    END
ELSE
    BEGIN
        /* Otherwise conver the string to a datetime */
        SET @returnDatetime = CONVERT(datetime, @p_DateString);
    END

RETURN @returnDatetime;

END