Ron Lafferty, first Utah inmate to face execution by firing squad in a decade, founded polygamist cult and killed sister-in-law, her daughter
A 78-year-old Utah inmate, who was was convicted of killing his sister-in-law and her 15-month-old daughter, after she rejected his polygamist beliefs, may become the first prisoner to be executed by a firing squad in almost a decade in the state after he lost his appeal on Monday.
Ron Lafferty, along with his younger brother Dan, was convicted for the 1984 slayings of his sister-in-law Brenda Lafferty, 24, and her 15-month-old daughter Erica, and could be executed as early as next year, according to Andrew Peterson, assistant solicitor general at the Utah attorney general’s office.
The Lafferty brothers ran a polygamous cult called the School of Prophets and they blamed Brenda for not letting her husband, Allen Lafferty, join their cult. They also held her responsible for helping Ron's wife leave him along with their six children.
As a result on July 24, 1984, the two brothers went to Brenda's house when Allen was not home and killed the two. After brutally beating Brenda, the pair strangled her with a vacuum cord before finally slitting her throat. They then proceeded to slit Erica's throat a well.
Dan was tried first in January 1985, during which he decided to represent himself. Although the jurors found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and four other felonies, a unanimous decision was not reached on the issue of death sentence. As a result, he was sentenced to life in prison, according to Daily Mail.
When Ron went to trial in April of the same year, the jury did reach the unanimous verdict of death sentence after finding him guilty. However, his capital murder conviction was overturned by the 10th Circuit, which stated that wrong standards had been used to evaluate his mental competency.
When he was retried in 1996, the same verdict was reached.
Upon being convicted again, Ron chose execution by firing squad as his method of death - a decision he has since changed.
New legislation introduced in 2015 rules that a firing squad would only be used as an execution method when lethal injection drugs are not available. However, since death row inmates in 1996 had a choice of picking the method of death and Ron had selected the firing squad long before the law change, he was not privy to the terms of the renewed legislation.
On Monday, Ron lost four counts of appeals at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado.
His lawyers had claimed that the state of Utah had no right to retry him after his first conviction was dissolved; his retrial violated double-jeopardy protections; he was victimized by ineffective counsel; and that he was wrongly determined competent to stand trial in 1996.
Dale Baich, Ron's lawyer said that they would be exploring all options possible to challenge the recent overturning of his client's appeals, including asking the Supreme Court to review the case.
"When the most severe penalty a state can impose is at stake we look to the courts to be the safety net to ensure that the full protections allowed by the Constitution have been met," he said.
"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."