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.

Resources

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

Utah Execution Totals Since 1976