He died of natural causes in Utah state prison today. One down, Dan to go.

The only thing I regret is that he won't be executed by firing squad, an event that would have brought more publicity to the church and its bizarre teachings.

Imagine it: Lebarons and Blood Atonement in the headlines at the same time.

If you believe in Mormonism it is better this way. No blood atonement for him.

True, but I am not Mormon and only evaluate these things in terms of exposing the corruption that informs the church. By that standard, it would have been nice if he continued insisting on being shot.

I'm against capital punishment. I think his victim would have possibly preferred he went this way instead of the State's way?

Oh, I agree with you about capital punishment. But if you are in a state that performs it, secondary considerations become important. I'd love to see the glare of news coverage alight upon the Mormon doctrine of blood atonement.

Brenda Wright Lafferty. Don't make me cry.

It's been years, but IIRC, a board member was her friend and made a video when this person looked for her and her child's grave. There's a temple etched on the headstone, natch.

I read that on average these kinds of inmates cost us $130,000 per year to sit in jail waiting to die. Ron has cost tax payers Millions for what purpose?

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/02/09/new-study-of-utahs-use-of-the-death-penalty-suggests-no-surprise-that-life-without-parole-costs-less/

"Cost estimates for the price of the death penalty in Utah are limited, the group noted. Legislative analysts in 2012 estimated that a death sentence and decades of appeals costs $1.6 million more than a life-without-parole sentence.

Another more recent report estimated that Utah and its counties have spent almost $40 million to prosecute the 165 death-penalty eligible cases that have been filed in the last two decades. Only two cases in that time have resulted in a death sentence.

The CCJJ group also looked at studies in 15 other states — where costs ranged from a $136,000 estimate in Arizona in 2001 to a $1.5 million estimate in Nebraska in 2017 — and noted that Utah’s estimates are “consistent with national findings.” All of those estimates, the CCJJ report says, concluded that a life-without-parole sentence costs less than a death sentence."

Compared to that, Mormonism without parole is peanuts.

"of the dead say only good."

Lafferty's dead. Good.

That's pretty much my reaction. He just lost his most recent appeal in August, and the execution would have been a media circus, that would have been a PR nightmare for LDS Inc. Their "we're not weird" mantra is on life support as it is. They are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

But yeah. Dead. Good. It may not be satisfying closure, but it is closure.

I think Lafferty was delusional, but then Rusty and his light pen is pretty delusional too. It's just that Rusty's delusions are not criminal. I think a lot of TBMs could qualify as clinically delusional. This from the Trib article:

Therese Michelle Day, one of Ron Lafferty’s attorneys, said in a Monday statement that her client was mentally ill, and never able to assist his attorneys in his case. She wrote that Lafferty believed his incarceration was the result of a conspiracy between the state, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and “unseen spiritual forces,” including the spirit of the trial judge’s deceased father. He thought all of his attorneys were working against him, she said, and that one attorney was his reincarnated sister who later became possessed by an evil spirit.

“Through it all Mr. Lafferty, himself, never believed that he was mentally ill or incompetent,” Day said. “One expert said that if he was guilty of faking anything, he was guilty of pretending to be normal when he was not. Mr. Lafferty, like other mentally ill prisoners, was not treated for his mental illness as he should have been.”

So he was a bad version of Martin Harris.

IDK what type of crimes warrant the (very high costs of) death penalty, but I'm mostly against it; too bad the 'need' is sometimes driven by relatives/survivors.

Families, survivors, friends - they have the right to demand the death penalty. It's understandable.

But that's not the question behind capital punishment.

The question is: Should the state have the power to kill its citizens?

they can 'demand' anything they please to, but demanding doesn't make it (or anything) a matter of law.

The issue of states to execute certain criminals (or incarcerate them) is an established issue.

Executing someone doesn't restore the victim to life, but it does continue-extend the killing cycle.

Taxpayers have an (unwritten) 'right' to efficient use of tax resources, executions are far from that, many criminals opt for guilty pleas/life sentences when the death penalty threat is removed.

I believe that some states (Minnesota, others?) have lower murder rates than states who have/use the death penalty, that's also important;? what about Minnesota & others accounts for that????

I wish a light came down (from Heaven!) telling us which criminals 'must' be executed, but until that happens, we're stuck with a grossly unfair system.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2019 12:30PM by GNPE.

She's on your side of this debate, GNPE.

The sick f'er killed his baby niece. Too bad the system doesn't allow for more swift punishment (1984).

Little Erica Lafferty would have been in her mid-thirties now.
May she rest in peace.

And where did he and his bro get their whacky, horrible ideas from?

Dateline, 48 Hours, etc., and there are some people who really need to be put to death.