https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/08/12/ron-lafferty-could-face/

For those not familiar with this case, Under the Banner of Heaven goes into it in some detail, and the linked article above gives a short version. Here is a really short version: Ron and Dan Lafferty, Utah County, were in a polygamous group and their SIL was giving them grief about it, so they strangled her and slit her throat, and slit her infant daughter's throat on Pioneer Day, 1984.

Their reasoning was that she had promised to obey the True and Everlasting Covenant in the temple, and when she came out in opposition to their polygamy group, they carried out the temple-mandated penalty, and slit her throat.

Interestingly, the LDS Church dropped the penalties from the temple endowment a few years later. The Laffertys did not use the penalties as their legal defense, but I think LDS Inc was worried that somebody might some day.

Dan was sentenced to life in prison. Ron, now 78, had various trials, mental competency hearings, yada yada, and was finally sentenced to death. He appears to be near the end of the appeals line, and hasn't died of old age yet, so he will probably face a firing squad. BTW, his photo in the Trib looks pretty damn good for 78. Shows what a lifetime of staying out the sun will do for you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2019 01:22PM by Brother Of Jerry.

That sounds funny there--not like he got "life."

They did an interview with Ronnie Lee Gardner's brother about his execution by firing squad. His brother said he has nightmares every day. I used to be anti death penalty until some of the things I have seen, but then when I heard his brother talk about watching the execution, I question it again.

The jury has to vote unanimously for the death penalty in Utah, and Dan's jury did not get a unanimous vote. He served as his own attorney, and maybe that convinced a jury member he was not mentally competent. (joke - I have no idea what the juror(s) based their decision on).

Ron did get a unanimous death sentence verdict. For practical purposes it turned out to be a life sentence anyway, or pretty close to it.

The fact that Ron chose firing squad is going to make Utah a media circus again when the execution happens, and the whole sordid story will make international news again. I bet the Q15 are not looking forward to that.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I bet the Q15 are not
> looking forward to that.

They reap what they sow. A sow's ear.

I am opposed to the death penalty but an appeals process that lasts that long is a joke and a denial of justice to those murdered.

I don't think friends & family of a murder vic Ever 'get justice', what they Might get is Revenge.

If someone near/dear to me was murdered,

a) I wouldn't expect 'justice', it just isn't in the cards

b) Unless I was a witness, I wouldn't attend trial or any proceedings, that would suggest that I would get some satisfaction from it / our skewed criminal system (Don't Call it 'justice'!) That's entirely too shallow for me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2019 07:00PM by GNPE.

I always thought the state of Utah continued the use of a firing squad so the blood of the condemned would hit the soil in accordance to the prophecy of Brigham Young.

Perhaps international media will report this during the execution.

Perhaps? There is no doubt about it. Utah dropped execution by firing squad because of the media circus that was getting worse with each execution. They reinstated it again but only in case drugs for lethal injection were not available. Drug companies object to having their products used to kill people. Well, except for opioids, but that's a whole 'n'other thread.

Ron Lafferty can request firing squad because he was grandfathered in when firing squad execution was dropped in Utah. I suspect his choice has nothing to do with Mormon doctrine, and everything to do with creating a media circus that will cause LDS Inc extreme discomfort.

Will there be a raffle?

Tagging off another message stream, Ron Lafferty is going to die of lead poisoning.

Utah has a big advantage over states that use lethal injection because the drug suppliers are refusing to sell their products to those customers. Actually performing a lethal injection is a logistical and legal nightmare.

In prison for 35 years before being executed ?

I think there are some 'formalities' that must be attended to first, death warrant, perhaps another lead time/waiting period.

'due process' still applies.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Interestingly, the LDS Church dropped the
> penalties from the temple endowment a few years
> later. The Laffertys did not use the penalties as
> their legal defense, but I think LDS Inc was
> worried that somebody might some day.

I always thought based on my studies that the "penalties" were not supposed to be a punishment but said something along the lines of (I don't have an exact quotation handy) that *rather* than give up the keys & tokens, I would suffer so-and-so. I.e., as implying that if someone were (absurdly) to hold you captive and threaten you with death if you don't tell him the secret token, you'd still not reveal them. In other words the penalties were NOT something that someone *in the church* would be appointed to do to you. Or maybe that was a later interpretation by apologists.

I don't think the firing squad/blood atonement thing would relate so much to the whole temple "penalties" issue as to the need for one's blood to be spilled to the Earth, supposedly sending up a burnt offering to God, ho might then forgive the heinous sins which were not covered by Christ's atonement.

I think the poster was referring to Laffertys justifying the murder of their SIL as an application of the temple penalties for her rejection of polygamy. Throat slitting seems like a pointedly specific way to kill two people, straight from the penalty section of the endowment.

As poster pointed out, the actual wording of the penalties justified no such thing, but people have a tendency to hear what they want to hear. It's not much of a leap from blood oaths about signs and tokens, to blood oaths about plural marriage.

BTW, I was in SLC Costco yesterday, and a small herd of polygamous group women came by under full sail - identical floor length prairie dresses and stereotypical polyg braids. I had an urge to shout "what the <bleep> are you all thinking?", but I suppressed it.

The thinking has been done.

Don't all the shooters have to be priesthood holders for the magik of atonement to work?

If he served as his own attorney, did he talk about what God required (i.e. what the Church™) required?
If this helped the jury think he was a religious nutjob, then there's no way ChurchCo can't be embarrassed beyond beyond belief since it shows their cult bible fan-fiction craziness, except to say "We don't do that" (while sweeping things under the rug...) and throw their most famous prophet/seer/revelator BY under the bus....again.

Thank You, touchstone.