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State & Federal

Utah

News & Developments


News

Nov 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…

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Dec 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.

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Dec 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.

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Feb 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.

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Jan 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.

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Dec 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.”

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Nov 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.

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Sep 15, 2021

Four Utah Prosecutors Urge Legislature to Repeal and Replace Death Penalty

Four Utah dis­trict attor­neys, rep­re­sent­ing coun­ties that com­prise 57.5% of the state’s pop­u­la­tion, have urged the state leg­is­la­ture and Utah Governor Spencer Cox to enact leg­is­la­tion to repeal and replace Utah’s death penalty.

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Sep 08, 2021

Legislators Plan New Attempt to Repeal Utah Capital Punishment Law, as Prominent County Attorney Announces He Will No Longer Seek the Death Penalty

Efforts to end the death penal­ty in Utah edged for­ward on September 8, 2021 as two Republican leg­is­la­tors revealed plans to intro­duce leg­is­la­tion to ​“repeal and replace” the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and the pros­e­cut­ing attor­ney in the state’s sec­ond most pop­u­lous coun­ty declared that he would no longer seek the death penal­ty in future cases.

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May 05, 2021

Utah Capital Defense Lawyer Who Lost County Contract After Criticizing Underpayment in Death Penalty Cases Gets $250,000 Settlement

A for­mer Utah defense lawyer has received a $250,000 set­tle­ment after suing Weber County for alleged­ly fir­ing him in retal­i­a­tion for his pub­lic crit­i­cism of the county’s refusal to prop­er­ly fund a death-row prisoner’s cap­i­tal appeal and its inter­fer­ence in the case.

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Oct 14, 2020

Case Against Utah County for Retaliatory Firing of Lawyer Who Criticized Inadequate Funding of Death Penalty Appeal Moves Closer to Trial

A fed­er­al dis­trict court judge has issued an order mov­ing clos­er to tri­al a law­suit filed against a Utah coun­ty for the alleged retal­ia­to­ry fir­ing of a lawyer who had pub­licly crit­i­cized the coun­ty for refus­ing to ade­quate­ly fund his client’s death-penal­ty appeal.

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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.

Arches National Park. Photo by National Park Service.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • Utah Prosecution Council
  • Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  • Victims’ services

Utah Execution Totals Since 1976

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 7
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 43
  • Current Death Row Population: 7
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 0
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): July 1, 1973
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1977
  • Location of Death Row: Utah State Prison, Draper
  • Location of Executions: Utah State Prison, Draper
  • Capital: Salt Lake City
  • Region: West
  • Population: 3,271,616*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 2.25
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defendant get death for a felony in which s/he was not responsible for the murder?: No
  • Method of Execution: Firing squad if lethal injection is held unconstitutional and for inmates who selected firing squad prior to May 3, 2004
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Panel appointed by the Governor has authority to grant clemency
  • Governor: Spencer Cox

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