
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…
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 MoreSep 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.
Read MoreSep 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.
Read MoreMay 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.
Read MoreOct 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.

