State & Federal
Utah
Timeline
1973 - The death penalty is reinstated in Utah following Furman v. Georgia.
1977 - Utah executes Gary Gilmore and becomes the first state to resume executions after capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976.
2003 - The Utah Legislatures unanimously approves a bill that prohibits the execution of those with intellectual disabilities.
2007 - Utah passes a bill making the murder of a child under 14, a death-eligible offense.
2010 - Utah executed Ronnie Gardner by firing squad.
2021 - Four Utah district attorneys urge the state legislature and Governor Spencer Cox to enact legislation to repeal and replace Utah’s death penalty.
2022 - Two formerly pro-death penalty Republican legislators introduce a bill that would effectively repeal and replace capital punishment in Utah. The bill dies in committee by a single vote.
Famous Cases
Ronnie Lee Gardner became the third person in the modern era to be executed by firing squad on June 18, 2010. It has not executed anyone since.
On July 24, 1984, a state holiday commemorating the arrival of Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley, Ronald Lafferty and his brother Dan murdered his sister-in-law Brenda and her baby daughter, delusionally believing that they had been responsible for his excommunication from the Church of Latter Day Saints. Lafferty, who was severely mentally ill, and his brothers had formed a breakaway polygamous sect they called the School of the Prophets. He said he had received a “divinely inspired” vision to commit the killings. Lafferty was sentenced to death in 1985, but a federal appeals court overturned his conviction because of his concerns over his mental competency. His retrial was delayed after a court found him incompetent to stand trial in 1992. Two years later, he was deemed competent to be retried. He was retried and convicted in April 1996 and again sentenced to death.
Lafferty died on Utah’s death row in November 2019 at the age of 78. At the time, he was Utah’s longest-serving death-row prisoner. Lafferty’s case was the subject of Jon Krakauer’s 2003 book, Under the Banner of Heaven.
Other Interesting Facts
Utah was the first state to resume executions after capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976, when Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad on January 17, 1977.
Utah is the only state to have executed inmates by firing squad in the modern era.
Utah Execution Totals Since 1976
News & Developments
News
Mar 18, 2024
Utah Prisoners’ Request for Information Thwarted by New Legislation Increasing Secrecy in Execution Procedures
On February 16, 2024, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 109, Corrections Modifications, into law, “amend[ing] provisions related to the [Utah] Department of Corrections.” S.B. 109, described as an “uncontroversial” legislative measure, was belatedly amended to include a provision preventing the public disclosure of “identifying information” about individuals involved in carrying out executions, the procurement of drugs and supplies needed for executions, and any identifying information about those involved in the manufacturing or producing of the drugs and supplies. The new secrecy provision will now make it almost impossible…
Read MoreFeb 14, 2024
Utah Court Rules Prisoner Suffering from Dementia Requires a Competency Assessment Following the State’s Request for Execution
On February 13, 2024, the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evidence presented by Ralph Menzies’ attorneys of his dementia and cognitive decline requires a formal assessment of his competency to face execution by firing squad. With its decision, the court also vacated a hearing scheduled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intended to request an execution warrant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a competency hearing, Mr. Menzies has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular…
Read MoreJan 29, 2024
Lawyers for 65-Year-Old Prisoner with Vascular Dementia Say He is Incompetent to be Executed Days After Utah Requests Execution Date and Use of Firing Squad
On January 23, 2024, attorneys for Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies, who has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular dementia, filed a petition in state court alleging he is incompetent to be executed. Mr. Menzies, who uses a walker to navigate the prisons, has been on Utah’s death row for nearly 36 years. On January 17, 2024, Utah’s attorney general’s office filed a motion with courts to set an execution date for him and indicated it will use the firing squad.
Read MoreJan 04, 2024
Utah Judge Clears the Way for Use of the Firing Squad
On December 22, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by five men on the state’s death row that challenged Utah’s two execution methods and protocols. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie sought an order vacating Utah’s current execution protocols for lethal injection and firing squad and enjoining their future use. The prisoners argue that both methods constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. In her decision to dismiss their lawsuit, Judge Sanchez wrote that the “plaintiffs…
Read MoreNov 08, 2023
Utah Judge Hears Argument in Prisoners’ Lawsuit Against Execution Protocol
On October 26, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by five death-sentenced prisoners against the State in April. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie seek an order vacating Utah’s current execution protocol and enjoining its use. The lawsuit argues that the State’s two-pronged protocol, with lethal injection as the default method of execution and firing squad as a backup, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in both methods and is therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. At…
Read MoreDec 06, 2022
Midterm Elections: Moratorium Supporters, Reform Prosecutors Post Gains Despite Massive Campaign Efforts to Tie Reformers to Surge in Violent Crime
In a year that featured massive campaign advertising attempting to portray legal reformers as responsible for increases in violent crime, candidates committed to criminal legal reform or who promised to continue statewide moratoria on executions posted key election wins in the 2022 midterm elections. Defying a pre-election narrative forecasting a backlash against progressive prosecutors and conventional wisdom that fear of crime drives political outcomes, reform prosecutors were re-elected to office and gained new footholds in counties across the country.
Read MoreDec 01, 2022
Utah Court Grants New Trial to Death-Row Prisoner Convicted in 1985 by False Testimony Coerced by Police
A Utah judge has granted a new trial to death-row prisoner Douglas Carter, finding that prosecutors knowingly withheld from the defense evidence that police coerced false testimony from two key witnesses, coached them to lie, provided them “thousands of dollars in financial benefits” to implicate Carter, and threatened them with deportation and loss of their son if they did not cooperate.
Read MoreFeb 17, 2022
Effort to Repeal and Replace Utah’s Death Penalty Fails on 6 – 5 Vote in State House Committee
A high-profile Republican-led effort to abolish the death penalty in Utah has failed in committee by a single vote. State representatives in the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 6 – 5 on February 14, 2022 not to advance a proposal that would repeal Utah’s death penalty and replace it with a new non-capital sentencing alternative of 45 years to life.
Read MoreJan 19, 2022
Republican Legislators Introduce Bill to Repeal and Replace Utah’s Death Penalty
Two conservative Republican legislators, both former supporters of capital punishment, have introduced legislation that would end death-penalty prosecutions in Utah.
Read MoreDec 30, 2021
Utah County Attorney’s Rejection of Death Penalty Reflects Broader Conservative Movement Away from Capital Punishment
When Utah County Attorney David Leavitt (pictured) announced on September 8, 2021 that his office would no longer pursue the death penalty, his decision to do so was emblematic of a broader shift in conservative thinking on the death penalty. The Republican district attorney from “a deeply conservative” county that gave Donald Trump a 41-percentage-point margin of victory in the 2020 presidential election joined what the Wall Street Journal describes as “a growing movement of conservatives across the country pushing for an end to capital punishment.”
Read MoreNov 08, 2021
New Polls Show Support for Death Penalty Declining in Utah and Oklahoma
New public opinion polls show that, consistent with national trends, support for the death penalty is declining in the conservative strongholds of Utah and Oklahoma.
Read More