[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, KY., IOWA, S. DAK., UTAH

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 30




OHIO----impending execution

Lawyers say condemned killer early victim of opioid epidemic----Lawyers said 
Raymond Tibbetts deserves mercy because of "his addiction and unanswered 
requests for help"



Ohio Gov. John Kasich should consider his fight against the state's deadly 
opioid epidemic when deciding whether to spare a condemned killer whose life 
spiraled out of control after becoming addicted to painkillers, say attorneys 
trying to stop the killer's execution less than 3 weeks from now.

Death row inmate Raymond Tibbetts was doing fine until he was inappropriately 
prescribed painkillers for a work injury in the mid-1990s, according to 
documents provided Kasich by federal public defender Erin Barnhart.

"We know now just how devastating and deadly opioid addiction can be, and our 
government officials are rightly working to combat this epidemic on several 
fronts," Barnhart wrote Kasich last year.

Tibbetts deserves mercy because of "his addiction and unanswered requests for 
help with his struggle," Barnhart wrote.

The Ohio Parole Board voted 11-1 last year against clemency for Tibbetts. 
Kasich, who has the final say, is expected to announce his decision soon.

Drug overdoses killed a record 4,050 Ohioans in 2016. Kasich has pushed several 
initiatives to slow painkiller prescribing by doctors.

Tibbetts, 60, was sentenced to die for stabbing Fred Hicks to death at Hicks' 
Cincinnati home in 1997. Tibbetts also received life imprisonment for fatally 
beating and stabbing his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford, during an argument 
that same day over Tibbetts' crack cocaine habit.

The 67-year-old Hicks had hired Crawford as a caretaker and allowed the couple 
to stay with him.

Tibbetts is not deserving of clemency in part because Hicks' killing was 
"particularly senseless and gratuitous," the parole board said in its decision 
last year.

1 board member believed that life without parole was warranted because 
Tibbetts' circumstances from the day he was born presented a "recipe for a 
disaster," according to the report. The board member also noted that Tibbetts' 
requests for help with mental health and substance abuse issues were routinely 
met with inadequate responses from social service agencies and other 
professionals.

Tibbetts' lawyers have long argued his traumatic and chaotic childhood played a 
role in his criminal behavior.

In the new arguments presented to the governor, psychologists who examined 
Tibbetts say the opioid prescriptions he received in the 1990s furthered his 
problems.

"Tibbetts' is a sad case of someone who was strongly biologically predisposed 
to drug and alcohol problems," Bob Stinson, a Columbus psychologist and 
chemical dependency counselor, told Kasich in an Aug. 13 letter. "His 
significant trauma history almost guaranteed problems would materialize in his 
own life."

Hamilton County prosecutors have argued that Tibbetts' background doesn't 
outweigh his crimes. That included stabbing Crawford after he'd already beaten 
her to death, then repeatedly stabbing Hicks, a "sick, defenseless, 
hearing-impaired man in whose home Tibbetts lived," they told the parole board.

"In nearly every case this board reviews, inmates assert that their poor 
childhoods, drugs, or some other reason mitigate their actions," Ron Springman, 
an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor, told the board in a 2017 filing. "The 
mitigation in this case does not overcome the brutality of these murders."

(source: Associated Press)








KENTUCKY:

Judge slams prosecutor for vindictiveness in Kentucky murder case once linked 
to satanism



When a judge threw out the murder convictions of Keith Hardin and Jeffrey 
Clark, in 2016, holding that prosecutors had wrongly tied the crime to satanic 
worship, the commonwealth could have dismissed the case.

Virtually all evidence linking Hardin and Clark to the murder of Rhonda Sue 
Warford had been discredited, Judge Bruce Butler said, and the pair already had 
served more than 21 years behind bars.

But Assistant Attorney General Perry Ryan not only had a grand jury re-indict 
the pair for murder, he also had them charged with perjury and kidnapping - 
putting them at risk of the death penalty.

It almost seemed as if Ryan was trying to punish them for proving their 
innocence.

Now Butler has found that is exactly what Ryan did.

In a 14-page ruling this month dismissing perjury and kidnapping charges, 
Butler said the attorney general's office acted out of vindictiveness.

Personally rebuking Ryan by name, the court found that he sought to punish the 
defendants for exercising their constitutional rights in violation of the state 
and federal constitutions.

"Vindictive conduct by persons with the awesome powers of prosecutors is 
unacceptable," Butler wrote.

Linda Smith, supervising attorney for the Kentucky Innocence Project, which 
represents Clark, said she expects the attorney general's office "will now do 
the right thing" and move to dismiss the murder charges as well.

Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project in New York, which helped 
win Clark and Hardin a new trial, said dismissal of charges because of 
vindictive prosecution is extremely rare, and that he is "cautiously 
optimistic" the murder case will also be dropped.

Hardin, now 48, and Clark, 46 - who have been free on bond since Butler held 
their 1995 convictions were based on "suppositions that we now know to be 
fundamentally false" - still face retrial for murder.

Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the 
dismissed indictments were sought by the Meade County commonwealth's attorney 
and that the AG's office didn't take over as lead prosecutor until Oct. 3. 
Sebastian said since then, the office has taken a "fresh look" at the evidence 
and is "committed to doing the right thing."

He said the office doesn't believe Ryan, a 29-year prosecutor, engaged in any 
wrongful conduct, but he has not been a part of this case since the office took 
over as the trial level prosecutor.

Butler said in his ruling that Ryan had been involved in the case for 20 years.

David M. Williams, the commonwealth's attorney, said he still wants to see 
Clark and Hardin retried for the murder but "that's not my call now." He said 
he gave up the case because he was swamped with other work.

The attorney general's office and Ryan have already twice been slammed by the 
Kentucky Supreme Court for its stances in the case.

First, in 2013, the state high court emphatically rejected the commonwealth's 
position denying DNA tests sought by Clark and Hardin.

The commonwealth had claimed such tests are only allowed after convictions in 
death penalty cases. But the court flatly dismissed that argument, saying "we 
are mystified, if not amazed, that the commonwealth has such little interest in 
the possibility that DNA testing might lead to the prosecution and conviction 
of a guilty person heretofore uncharged and now at large upon the 
commonwealth."

Affirming Butler's ruling, the state Supreme Court also rejected Ryan's 
argument that the men's unsworn statements admitting to crimes constituted 
legitimate evidence of their guilt.

Inmates have no choice but to admit their offenses to be eligible for parole 
consideration, the court said in a 6-1 ruling.

"We see little merit in insincere and contrived admissions, which are induced 
solely by the yearning to be free," the court said.

The Meade County sheriff and Louisville police focused on Hardin after 
Warford's mother told them her daughter was dating Hardin, that he was friends 
with Clark and that all three had been dabbled in satanic practices.

Police searched Hardin's home and found a satanic bible and other books, as 
well as a washcloth soaked in blood.

Louisville Police Det. Mark Handy testified that Hardin told him during an 
interrogation that he had gotten "tired of looking at animals and began to want 
to do human sacrifices." And a prosecution expert testified a hair found on 
Warford's sweatpants was a "microscopic match" with Hardin.

But throwing out the convictions, Judge Butler noted that the DNA testing that 
prosecutors had zealously opposed showed the hair - the only physical evidence 
linking the defendants to the crime - belonged to neither of them.

The tests also show that blood found on the washcloth was Hardin's own - not 
that of the victim nor from animals the prosecution claimed were used ritual 
sacrifices.

And Butler said that Handy has been discredited in subsequent cases, including 
one where a Louisville police internal investigation found he had falsely 
attributed incriminating statements to defendant Edwin Chandler, who was 
convicted on murder charges but later exonerated. Chandler, who spent 9 years 
in prison, won an $8.5 million settlement from Louisville Metro.

In his Jan. 19 order dismissing the indictments for perjury and kidnapping, 
Butler noted the charges were sought only after Innocence Project lawyers won 
Clark and Hardin a new trial.

The judge said Ryan tacked on the charges "in an effort to increase the penalty 
to which defendants were exposed, thereby punishing Defendants for successfully 
exercising their legal rights."

Butler also said Ryan waited 29 months after Hardin testified before the parole 
board to charge him with perjury, and only did so after he and Clark were 
granted the new trial.

"This is clear and actual vindictive prosecutorial action," Butler said.

(source: Courier Journal)








IOWA:

House bill would reverse a half-century-old ban on capital punishment in Iowa



The Iowa House of Representatives is set to consider a bill that would allow 
those convicted of 1st degree murder to be put to death by lethal injection, 
potentially reversing a half-century-old ban on capital punishment in the 
state.

The House proposal, which is scheduled to get its 1st hearing Thursday, is much 
broader than a Senate version of the bill, which would apply only to those 
convicted of kidnapping, sexually abusing and killing a minor.

"It seems like some crimes are violent and vicious enough that the perpetrators 
should not have the right to breathe," said the bill's author, Rep. Clel 
Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield and chairman of the House Public Safety 
Committee. "It should send a message to society that we're not going to 
tolerate this kind of behavior."

He pointed also to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who told former USA Gymnastics team 
doctor Larry Nassar that she "just signed (his) death warrant" as she sentenced 
him to 40 to 175 years in prison last week in Michigan for molesting young 
athletes.

"The audience in the courtroom clapped," Baudler said. "So apparently it's OK 
to hold a guy between 40 and 175 years and it's a death warrant. Everybody 
thinks it's OK. But if you say the state has a law that allows the death 
penalty, people get all squeamish. And I don't have that in my bloodstream, I 
guess. It's either right or wrong."

Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, will lead the public subcommittee meeting on House 
Study Bill 569 Thursday morning. He said he has not made up his mind about 
whether he will vote to advance the legislation.

"I believe that there are heinous crimes in which the death penalty is 
warranted," he said. "However, there's also a lot of statistics that suggest 
maybe more minorities are impacted by this, which would not be appropriate. So 
I'm listening and hearing all the arguments, and I'll make a decision at that 
time."

The Iowa Senate is considering a similar bill, Senate File 335, which would 
allow the death penalty, but in far fewer circumstances.

Daniel Zeno, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said 
his organization would oppose reinstating the death penalty in any form.

"We think the death penalty is inherently unconstitutional," he said. "Too 
often, who gets the death penalty is determined by race, by geography. ... 
There should be consequences for criminal acts. But in this case, we think 
there are other ways to do it."

If either bill is approved, Iowa would become 1 of 32 states to permit the 
death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The state's last execution was on March 15, 1963, when Victor Harry Feguer, a 
federal inmate, was hanged for kidnapping and killing a Dubuque physician. 
President John F. Kennedy denied Gov. Harold Hughes' 11th-hour bid for 
clemency.

Hughes signed legislation in 1965 that outlawed the practice.

A host of organizations have lined up in opposition to the House bill, 
including the Iowa Attorney General's office, the Iowa chapter of the National 
Alliance on Mental Illness, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence and 
the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. None has registered in favor of the bill, though 
many remain undecided .

Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, said his 
organization opposes the bill from a moral perspective.

"The main reason we oppose it is it's not necessary to protect society," he 
said. "Here in Iowa we've got life in prison without parole for people who are 
convicted of 1st degree murder. If it's not necessary to kill someone to 
protect society, we would prefer the state uses non-lethal means."

Both Holt and Baudler have been vocal opponents of abortion; both said they do 
not see the death penalty as a violation of their pro-life positions.

"My faith informs me as a Christian that there are some situations in which, I 
believe, it is biblical that the death penalty is warranted in heinous crimes," 
said Holt. "...I don't believe there's any hypocrisy between being pro-life, 
when you're talking about an innocent unborn child, as opposed to someone who 
has committed a heinous crime."

The bill is in its earliest stages and faces a long legislative road. But if 
approved, it would take effect in January 2019 and would apply to offenses 
committed after that date.

It authorizes the costs for 2 attorneys for indigent defendants who face the 
death penalty, and it directs the Iowa Supreme Court and the state public 
defender to set up structures and training systems to provide legal assistance 
in cases of capital punishment.

The legislation also would prevent the death penalty from being applied to 
children and to those who are mentally or intellectually disabled, and it would 
delay the death of pregnant women until after they give birth or until they are 
no longer pregnant.

Under the bill, state employees could object to participating in administering 
the death penalty. The state Supreme Court also would be required to review 
every case where the death penalty is applied to consider whether the 
punishment is excessive.

The Des Moines Register last polled on the issue of capital punishment in 2006. 
At that time, 66 % of Iowa adults favored reviving the death penalty for 
certain crimes, and 29 % opposed it.

(source: Des Moines Register)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Mental Disability Trial Underway For Man Facing Death Penalty



The case of a South Dakota man convicted of murder and sentenced to death, has 
made its way back to the courtroom.

Today, a former teacher and principal of 55-year-old Rodney Berget both 
testified in court. A "mental disability trial" is underway to determine if he 
is intellectually disabled. Berget's mental status is in question after he 
wrote a letter to a judge requesting to carry out his execution, rather than 
wait for his lawyer's appeal of it.

Berget was convicted in 2012 of murdering correctional officer Ronald "R.J." 
Johnson and sentenced to be executed in 2015.

This trial is expected to continue through Wednesday.

(source: KDLT news)

**********************

Death Penalty Revision to Be Heard at State Capitol



The severely mentally ill would not be executed for committing a capital crime 
in South Dakota if a bill is passed by the state legislature this year and 
becomes law.

South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is behind the bill. The 
advocacy group's director, Dennis Davis, says the bill would allow a judge to 
order life in prison rather than execution if a person convicted of a capital 
crime has an intellectual disability or is found to be severely mentally ill 
when the crime occurred.

Davis maintains there are more effective ways to punish people who commit 
horrific crimes.

"When we execute someone, on their death certificate, the manner of death is 
checked off as homicide," he points out. "The doctor will check it as homicide. 
It is state-sponsored homicide, and is that the kind of people that we are? And 
that's always the question that I ask. I think we're better than that."

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 3 males have been executed in 
South Dakota.

The House State Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear the bill on Wednesday.

Death penalty cases typically cost 10 times more than a 1st degree murder case, 
or an average of $1 million more per case than life imprisonment.

Davis says when you take the politics and emotion out of the death penalty, it 
no longer makes sense.

"Actually, in 2017 and 2016 were 2 of the lowest execution years since 1976, 
when it was brought back by the Supreme Court, so consciousness is raising 
throughout the United States, I think South Dakota also," he points out.

Davis' group has previously brought bills to completely repeal the South Dakota 
death penalty without success.

He says the justice system is not perfect, and far too many innocent people end 
up on death row.

"There's been 160 since 1976 that have been exonerated from death row," he 
stresses. "They were innocent. Some spent as much as 30, 40 years on death 
row."

South Dakota is 1 of 32 states that still has the death penalty on the books, 
while 18 have abolished it. There are currently 3 men on death row.

(source: publicnewsservice.org)








UTAH:

Bill would expand the list of death-penalty crimes, stirring concern it could 
jeopardize Utah's capital-punishment law



A bill that would expand Utah's list of crimes eligible for the death penalty 
cleared an early hurdle at the Capitol on Monday as lawmakers moved it to the 
Senate floor despite fears that SB30 could actually imperil the state's capital 
punishment law if challenged in court.

SB30 would enhance the penalty for killing private security officers and 
various first responders.

But it raised concern for 1 member of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and 
Criminal Justice Committee who said that while he supports the death penalty in 
Utah, a court challenge could torpedo the law for being too broad.

"I am concerned with loading that boat too full and sinking the boat," Sen. 
Todd Weiler, the Woods Cross Republican who leads the committee, said before 5 
other members voted to pass the bill.

Weiler, an attorney, said he'd heard concerns from civil-rights groups that 
Utah may have too many crimes that qualify for the death penalty.

Marina Lowe, legislative and policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties 
Union of Utah, said the U.S. Supreme Court halted executions in the past for 
laws giving prosecutors too much discretion over whether someone faces death 
penalty charges. The state has over 60 aggravating factors that could lead to a 
death sentence.

"Organizations like my own don't think it's appropriate we're allowing [the 
death penalty] for more and more crimes each year," Lowe said.

Sen. Karen Mayne, a Democrat from West Valley City and sponsor of SB30, said 
she couldn't assure Weiler that passing the bill wouldn't tip the scale and put 
Utah's death penalty in jeopardy with the courts.

"I can't give you assurance that tomorrow the sun is going to come up," Mayne 
said. "We can lawyer this all day long. And every lawyer and prosecutor has 
different opinions. They're paid from different circumstances to have those 
opinions. And I respect that."

2 Democrats joined 3 Republicans in voting to move the bill to the Senate floor 
for further consideration.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)

***********************************

Lawmaker wants death penalty option for killing ambulance drivers, security 
guards



Killing an ambulance driver or a private security guard could result in an 
aggravated murder charge eligible for the death penalty under a proposed law a 
Utah legislative committee backed Monday.

Lawmakers, however, were told passing the bill could lead to a court 
overturning Utah's death penalty law.

Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, said all first responders called to an 
emergency should be treated the same regardless of their jobs.

"We just don't know who's going to get there 1st," she told the Senate 
Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Monday. "Sometimes 
those who would do harm lay in wait."

SB30 would add correctional officers, special function officers, search and 
rescue workers, emergency medical personnel, ambulance personnel and security 
officers to the list of potential aggravated murder victims. Aggravated murder 
could result in the death penalty.

Aggravating circumstances could apply if the officer is on duty, if the killing 
is related to the victim's position or if the offender reasonably should have 
known the victim's position, according to the bill. Mayne said it would be up 
to prosecutors to decide if those factors apply to the crime.

The committee voted 5-1 to advance the bill to the House floor.

Mayne said the legislation is not about the merits of capital punishment.

But William Carlson, deputy Salt Lake County district attorney, warned that 
appeals courts in other states have thrown out the death penalty when they have 
found the list of aggravating factors has grown too long. Utah law already 
lists 60 aggravating factors, he said.

Still, he said neither the district attorney's office nor the Statewide 
Association of Prosecutors has a position on the bill.

Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said people who oppose the death penalty 
favor the bill because it could lead to the law being repealed. She told her 
colleagues she expects a lawsuit if SB30 passes, though she voted for it and 
opposes the death penalty.

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Wood Cross, cast the lone vote against the bill. As a death 
penalty supporter, he said he worries that adding aggravating factors to the 
law could sink capital punishment.

The Utah Chiefs of Police Association supports the measure.

"These are folks we are asking to protect the public and put themselves in 
harm's way," said Bountiful Police Chief Tom Ross, the association president.

"This is an important part of protecting those who respond to dangerous 
situations," he said. "It sends a message to people who we employ that we're 
looking out for their interest."

(source: Deseret News)

******************************

Death Penalty Repeal Groups, Including Republicans Say Utah Is Moving Closer To 
Ending Executions



Valerie Young, a schoolteacher in West Valley City tearfully recalls the day 
she found out the boys who she believes killed her 16-year-old brother Craig in 
1978 would not face charges.

"You want to hurt them," Young says. "And as I sat and thought about that I 
thought, maybe I could shoot them. I could make them pay for that. And as I 
thought of that at my 18 year old self, I had access to the guns ... What if I 
kill the wrong one? Which one did it? Do I kill them all? I can't kill them 
all. And then I thought can I really kill somebody?"

It was a small town in rural Idaho. Everyone talked. Neighbors saw the boys 
arguing with Craig at the gas station where he was cashing his paycheck. He was 
found later on the side of the road. His motorcycle laid down. Something was 
shoved under his helmet and into his brain stem. Something long and sharp that 
was never found.

Over the years, she watched the boys succumb to their own tragic circumstances. 
One died from a drug overdose. Another went to prison on unrelated charges. 
Young moved on as best she could.

If I have to live with it, then I think the people who did it should have to 
live with it. And how their lives turned out tells me they didn't live with it 
very well. -- Valerie Young

Young believes capital punishment is wrong. But like many families who've lost 
someone to murder, she's had a lot of time to think it through.

Christine Stenquist has a similar story. The Kaysville woman has become well 
known in Utah as a brain cancer survivor who advocates for the legalization of 
medical marijuana in Utah. But in 2010, her younger sister Sunday Blomberg was 
brutally murdered by Blomberg's in-laws in Georgia. The prosecutor told the 
family they were seeking the death penalty. But they wanted the family's 
approval.

"You could imagine that each one of us had a range of emotions," Stenquist 
says. "Reflecting over the 15 months. The 4 weeks, almost 5 weeks she was 
missing and none of us knew where she was. To finding that her body was dumped 
and her body couldn't even be recognized."

Stenquist says they identified her by her breast implants.

"Knowing all those details over time and then to have the state come to you and 
say we want to seek the death penalty, it was hard because I felt like my 
emotions were being played on," she says.

Stenquist and her family told Georgia officials not to seek the death penalty - 
and they obliged.

"You go through those emotions. And emotions are good and they're healthy," she 
says. "But not always acting on them, and having the emotional intelligence to 
know, I am having a hard time right now and I am not in the best 
decision-making mode. And I should not be part of making a decision of what 
happens to somebody else's life when I'm in the midst of my own sorrow."

As powerful as these stories are, it's not the emotion, sense of compassion or 
ideas about justice that are leading conservatives across the country to change 
course on capital punishment. It's money. People are finding that a death 
sentence is more expensive than life in prison. Many Utah Republicans now want 
to see the practice abolished. Former Utah Republican Senator Steve Urquhart 
sponsored a bill in 2016 to repeal the death penalty.

"I think my position on the death penalty is representative of most Republican 
legislators," Urquhart says. "And that's a position of initially being for the 
death penalty. But when confronted with facts about how the death penalty 
really operates, I was willing to consider it."

Urquhart was able to convince many of his colleagues. His bill passed the 
Senate 15-12. But it lost support before it reached the full House.

"We make promises to families that significant justice, powerful justice will 
be delivered through the death penalty," he says. "Yet that's not delivered for 
decades and decades." The reality is a majority of people on death row will 
never be executed.

Instead, they become high-profile cases that drag on at the expense of the 
taxpayer. In Utah, a 2012 audit showed that over the course of a death row 
inmate's life - the state will spend about $1.6 million more to try to put him 
to death than to just keep him locked up.

"Some lawmakers say, 'Well, let's just do away with appeals.' Well we have the 
constitution. So that's just not going to happen," Urquhart says. "So they say 
well, let's just do it faster. Okay, you can make it work faster. Texas has 
done this. What this means is you need to do away with grounds for appeal."

In order to cut down on appeals, the state would have to provide convicted 
murderers the best possible legal representation at the start of the case. And 
spend millions of dollars more on attorney's fees. Urquhart says the chances of 
that happening in Utah are zero to none.

This is why many people are telling the state to stop trying to execute people. 
There's too much at stake. And then there's always the possibility that someone 
on death row will be wrongly convicted.

Jensie Anderson is with Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, which works to prevent 
and correct wrongful convictions in Western states. She and other advocates 
gathered at Weber State University earlier this month to make a case for 
repeal.

"In the last 20 years, we've seen over 2,100 people exonerated. 161 of those 
from death row. It's giving us tangible proof that the system makes mistakes," 
Anderson says.

Several of those exonerations have been in Utah. However, none have been for 
death row inmates. Utah has 9 inmates on death row right now.

36 states have either abolished the death penalty, have executions on hold or 
have enacted a moratorium on the practice.

Support for capital punishment in Utah, however is still pretty strong. In 
2015, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill to bring back execution by 
firing squad because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. And Utah 
lawmakers continue to sponsor and pass bills that lengthen the list of reasons 
someone can be put to death. This year, there's a bill to add first responders 
to the list of aggravated murder victims. It's sponsored by a Democrat.

Still, things have changed so much that now there's an organization called 
Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. Kevin Greene is head of the 
local chapter. He says the list of capital offenses in Utah is getting so long, 
that it's no longer just the worst of the worst who can be sentenced to death.

"It increases the number of people that are going to go through this process," 
he says. "The expense. The higher chance of innocent people getting wrapped up 
in it. It is definitely something to be concerned about."

Greene and Anderson are working with lawmakers to decide who will sponsor this 
year's bill to repeal the death penalty now that Urquhart is gone. They say 
several Republicans have shown interest.

Representative Paul Ray is not one of them. The Republican is an ardent 
supporter of capital punishment.

"You deserve the death penalty in Utah if you get the death penalty," Ray says. 
"It's not just because you sang too loud in the church choir on Sunday. It's 
because you're a monster and you deserve to die."

Ray says saving convicted murderers is not a high priority for Utahns. A 2016 
poll conducted by Dan Jones and Associates for www.Utahpolicy.com shows a 
slight majority of Utahns support the death penalty.

And Ray is skeptical of the audit that shows the death penalty is more 
expensive than life in prison. He thinks the research was incomplete.

"And I'll be honest with you, I don't vote on justice based on a budget," Ray 
says. "I vote on justice based on justice. Okay if it does cost more, I still 
don't care. Because those people need to be removed out of society and removed 
out of the prisons because they???re dangerous."

Ray says he will, however support Republican Representative Steve Handy's bill 
this year, which asks the state auditor for a more exhaustive review of the 
cost of capital punishment. Handy, by the way says it will likely show capital 
punishment is probably MORE expensive than the previous audit suggests.

Sharon Wright Weeks has a nuanced opinion of the death penalty. Her sister 
Brenda Wright Lafferty and niece Erica Lane Lafferty were brutally murdered on 
July 24, 1984 in American Fork. Ron Lafferty and his brother Dan were convicted 
of murdering her family. The story made headlines because of the religious 
nature of the killings. Ron claimed God instructed him to kill his 
sister-in-law and her 15-month-old baby. Dan was sentenced to life in prison. 
Ron was sentenced to death. Weeks was a teenager at the time.

"We were given two different forms of justice. That was perfectly fine and we 
accepted that," Weeks says.

But more than 30 years later, Ron Lafferty is still on death row. A federal 
judge rejected his latest appeal in October. So Weeks and her family are still 
waiting for what they see as their justice to be fully served. And she wants it 
to be served. She worries that if Ron isn't executed, the time and energy her 
family spent, coupled with the tireless work of investigators and jurors would 
be for nothing.

"I saw the jury's face," she says. "Every single day. They took on the task 
that we asked them to do and they did it."

But moving forward, she says, she could support a repeal. Especially if it 
means more money for things like education.

"If it's something that's good for the state, yes I absolutely would get behind 
it," Weeks says. "That's the only think that would even make me feel okay about 
having my justice rent from me."

It's unclear when or if a bill to repeal the death penalty will surface this 
year, but those pushing for a repeal, at least for now, have bipartisanship in 
their corner. And they're not giving it up any time soon.

(source: KUER news)