Capital punishment in Utah

The execution chamber in Utah State Prison. The platform to the left is used for lethal injection. The metal chair to the right is used for execution by firing squad.

Capital punishment is legal in the U.S. state of Utah. Aggravated murder is the only crime subject to the penalty of death under Utah law. Lethal injection is the state's l of choice; however, the firing squad is also available in certain circumstances. As of May 8, 2011, nine people are under a sentence of death in the state.^[1] Since 1850, 51 individuals have been executed in Utah. It was the first state to resume executions after the 1967-1976 national moratorium on capital punishment.

History and current practices

John D. Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 for his role in the Mountain Meadows massacre.

The spring 1850 garroting of Patsowits, a Ute, was the first recorded execution in the provisional State of Deseret.^[2] Utah Territory was established in September 1850, and it permitted condemned prisoners to choose between hanging and firing squad. In 1851 beheading was introduced as a third execution option.^[3] No prisoner chose this method and the option was eliminated in 1888.^[4] In 1955, Utah state lawmakers voted to introduce the electric chair; however, the state never used electrocution due to failure to provide appropriation.^[5] Forty-four executions occurred in the State of Utah and Utah Territory before the national moratorium in 1967;^[6] six were by hanging and 38 were by firing squad.^[7] The last pre-moratorium execution in Utah took place on March 30, 1960.

A rally at the Utah State Capitol protests the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner.

In 1967 when the moratorium went into effect, Utah was the only remaining state to allow death row inmates to choose between firing squad and hanging.^[5][8] Utah attempted to reintroduce death penalty statutes during the moratorium but they were struck down by the 1972 United States Supreme Court decision in the case Furman v. Georgia.^[9] The state formally reinstated capital punishment on January 7, 1973^[10] and the new death penalty statutes were approved by the United States Supreme Court with the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. The reinstatement allowed Utah to move forward with the death sentences of Dale Selby Pierre and William Andrews for crimes committed in 1974 prior to the reinstatement of capital punishment. (They were later executed in 1987 and 1992, respectively.) On January 17, 1977, Utah became the first state to execute a prisoner after the moratorium ended: Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad,^[11] having selected that method over hanging. In 1958 twenty-one-year-old Barton Kay Kirkham became the last prisoner to be hanged by the state of Utah.^[12] Lethal injection was introduced in 1980^[8] and in February of that year the Utah State Legislature replaced the option of hanging with the option of lethal injection.^[13]

The first bill proposing to eliminate the firing squad option was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives in January 1996.^[14] In 2004, the legislature passed HB180, which removed the right of the condemned to choose the method of execution and left lethal injection as the only remaining option in the state.^[15][16] The abolition of the firing squad was not retroactive; three inmates on death row at Utah State Prison who chose this method of execution before the end of February 2004 will be executed by firing squad under a grandfather clause.^[16] Utah's most recent execution, that of 49-year-old Ronnie Lee Gardner on June 18, 2010, was the state's third execution by firing squad since the capital punishment moratorium was lifted, and the country's first sanctioned shooting in 14 years.^[15] Legislation signed by Gov. Gary Herbert in March 2015 restores the firing squad as a legal method of execution, requiring its use if the state is unable to obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs within 30 days of a scheduled execution.^[17][18]

Utah is the only state besides Nevada to have ever used the firing squad, although executions of this type are authorized in Oklahoma for prisoners who successfully challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection and electrocution.

Executions in Utah are currently performed at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah.^[19] Because the ethics standards of the American Medical Association forbid physician involvement in executions, other healthcare professionals including paramedics and nurses perform executions in Utah.^[20] Paramedics and nurses, however, are also forbidden from participation in executions by their own professional organizations' ethics codes.^[21][22][23] The prison protects the anonymity of professionals involved in executions, making it impossible for professional organizations to impose sanctions.^[24]

Conviction and sentencing process

Convicts who were under 18 at the time of commission of the crime^[25] and convicts who are mentally retarded^[26] are protected from the death penalty in Utah, as they are in all states, under federal law. Defendants in capital cases in the state of Utah may choose either a jury trial or a bench trial in which the judge alone decides the verdict and sentence. John Albert Taylor is the only Utah defendant to waive his jury right. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 by 2nd District Court Judge David Roth in Weber County. Clemency rests with the State of Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, of which the Governor of Utah is a member, making Utah one of a handful of states where the Governor does not have the sole power to grant clemency.^[27] As of 2008 no commutation of the death sentence has been given in Utah.^[27]

Definition of aggravated murder

Under Utah law, aggravated murder is the only crime subject to the penalty of death. It is defined as follows:^[28]

• The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, cruel or depraved (or involved torture).
• The murder was committed incident to a hijacking.
• The defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death for one or more persons in addition to the victim of the offense.
• The defendant committed or attempted to commit more than one murder at the same time.
• The murder was committed by means of poison or a lethal substance.
• The murder was committed for pecuniary gain or pursuant to an agreement that the defendant would receive something of value.
• The defendant caused or directed another to commit murder, or the defendant procured the commission of the offense by payment, promise of payment, or anything of pecuniary value.
• The murder was committed to avoid or prevent arrest, to effect an escape, or to conceal the commission of a crime.
• The capital offense was committed to interfere with the lawful exercise of any government function or the enforcement of the laws.
• The defendant has been convicted of, or committed, a prior murder, a felony involving violence, or other serious felony.
• The capital offense was committed by a person who is incarcerated, has escaped, is on probation, is in jail, or is under a sentence of imprisonment. The actor was under a sentence of life imprisonment or a sentence of death at the time of the homicide.
• The victim is or has been a local, state, or federal public official, or a candidate for public office, and the homicide is based on, is caused by, or is related to that official position, act, capacity, or candidacy.
• The murder was committed against a person held as a shield, as a hostage, or for ransom.
• The murder was committed against a witness in a criminal proceeding to prevent the witness from appearing, or for revenge.
• The homicide was committed while the actor was engaged in, or attempted to, or flight from committed or attempted child abuse.
• The defendant was involved in the desecration of a dead human body or dismembering, mutilation, or disfiguring of the victim's body, either before or after death, in a manner demonstrating the actor’s depravity of mind. The homicide was committed incident to the abuse or desecration of a dead body.
• The murder was committed by means of any weapon of mass destruction.

Individuals executed in Utah

See also

• List of death row inmates in Utah
• Capital punishment in the United States
• Religion and capital punishment
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States
• List of exonerated death row inmates

References

External links

• Aggravated murder. Utah State Legislature. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
• Capital felony – Penalties. Utah State Legislature. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
• Capital felony – Sentencing proceeding. Utah State Legislature. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.