Death by firing squad looms for Utah man after losing latest appeal

Courtesy of Utah Department of Corrections) Ronald Lafferty, death row inmate.

A Utah death row inmate featured in the popular book “Under the Banner of Heaven” after killing his sister-in-law and her child for resisting his polygamist beliefs inched closer to becoming the first American to be executed by firing squad in nearly a decade after losing his latest appeal Monday.

Lafferty, 78, can appeal the latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Andrew Peterson, assistant solicitor general at the Utah attorney general’s office.

“It’s incredibly unlikely they will review this case,” Peterson said, “and if they don’t, we’re talking months” until Lafferty is executed.

Dale Baich, an attorney for Lafferty, issued a statement Monday afternoon.

“When the most severe penalty a state can impose is at stake, the statement said, we look to the courts to be the safety net to ensure that the full protections allowed by the Constitution have been met. Here, the court relied on procedural technicalities to deny Mr. Lafferty a complete appellate review of his case.”

“We are carefully reviewing the decision and going forward, we will exercise all state and federal legal options.”

Utah has not executed an inmate since a firing squad shot Ronnie Lee Gardner to death in 2010. The state has eight inmates on its death row. Monday’s ruling makes Lafferty the closest of them to being executed.

State law gives Lafferty the choice between death by lethal injection or firing squad. Lafferty has said in court proceedings he wants the latter.

Dan Lafferty, left, Ron Lafferty in 1984. Ron Lafferty lost his latest appeal Monday, Aug. 12, 2019, and could be executed within months. Brother Dan is serving two life sentences.

Lafferty and his younger brother Dan Lafferty participated in the murders of Brenda Lafferty, 24, and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica. According to court documents, the brothers blamed their sister-in-law for helping Ron Lafferty’s wife leave him with their six children. Ron and Dan Lafferty also were upset, according to trial testimony, that Brenda Lafferty opposed her husband, Allen Lafferty, joining their polygamous cult, called School of the Prophets.

On Pioneer Day 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty forced their way into Brenda and Allen Lafferty’s American Fork duplex. Her husband, Allen was not home at the time and was cleared of any participation, although speculation still runs high among his wife’s friends and family.

Ron and Dan Lafferty beat her, strangled her with a vacuum cord and slit her throat, according to court documents. Dan Lafferty then killed Erica by cutting her throat.

Brenda, Allen and baby Erica the year before the murder

The two brothers were tried separately. Dan Lafferty went on trial first in January 1985. He represented himself. The 12 jurors convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and four other felonies but were unable to vote unanimously for the death penalty. A judge sentenced him to two life terms.

When Ron Lafferty, who had lawyers representing him, went to trial the following April, the jury convicted him and voted unanimously that he be put to death. The 10th Circuit — the same court that ruled Monday — later overturned the capital murder conviction and ordered a new trial after finding that the wrong standards had been used to evaluate Ron Lafferty’s mental competency.

The second trial commenced in 1996 with the same result — Ron Lafferty was convicted of murder charges and sentenced to die. Lafferty’s legal case has been crawling through state and federal courts ever since.

Even if the U.S. Supreme Court rejects the latest appeal, Ron Lafferty will still have some legal options. Once a state judge signs an execution warrant, Ron Lafferty will have the right to request a commutation from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

Peterson said Ron Lafferty’s attorneys might also yet argue he is not competent to be executed. Mental competency has arisen ever since Ron Lafferty was tried the first time, with trial and appellate attorneys arguing he couldn’t adequately assist in his defense.

Peterson said there is a different legal standard for determining if someone is competent to go to an execution chamber.

“As long as he knows why he’s being punished,” Peterson said, “he’s competent to be executed.”