SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court has denied a death-row challenge by a Utah inmate whose double-murder case was featured in the book “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
Utah assistant solicitor general Andrew Peterson says the Monday’s ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals means Ron Lafferty could be executed by firing squad as soon as next year. He chose that option when he was sentenced decades ago.
Lafferty’s lawyer Dale Baich says he will use all options to challenge the ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court would be the final court that could review the case.
Lafferty was convicted in the 1984 deaths of his sister-in-law and her baby daughter. He claimed the killings carried out with his brother were directed by God because of the victim’s resistance to his beliefs in polygamy.
