Help Create a Culture of Life: Urge an End to the Death Penalty

Friday, Apr. 01, 2022

As we prepare for the end of death through the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, it reminds us of our state’s continued support for the unnatural death of state sanctioned executions.

During the just-completed 2022 legislative session, the committee hearing on repeal and replacement of the death penalty in Utah demonstrated much of what is wrong with capital punishment. 

During the hearing, the Utah Attorney General’s office dredged up every horrific detail it could about past murder cases to inflame the discussion. Then, it paraded family members through the public comment portion to relive, once again, the pain and suffering they have endured for decades under the false promises of prosecutors that death of the perpetrator is the only way to bring them justice. 

The desire for vengeance by family members is understandable, but it is inhumane for prosecutors to continue to stoke that flame of revenge for years and years to maintain a barbaric and unnecessary system of punishment. It is natural to want revenge, it is unnatural to kill, even when government is the actor and the person being killed has shown a wanton disregard for life. 

Utah, of all states, should know this is the case. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disavowed their practice of blood atonement many years ago. Meanwhile, the most our state can do is use five people but only four actual bullets to shoot the unarmed, hooded and immobilized prisoner. This way, all five can maintain a clear conscience and claim they didn’t kill another human being.   

Meanwhile, murders continue to occur in our state and most perpetrators receive something less than a death sentence. In fact, the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice noted that in 165 capital cases between 1997 and 2016, only two individuals received a death sentence. If death is the only justice, the state (including its counties) has failed 163 families.  

Prosecutors and legislators claim the penalty is needed for the “worst of the worst.” As a faith, we believe any person is capable of reconciliation, and a label of “worst of the worst” need not be permanent. Determining who is the worst is also not a science but an incredibly subjective determination, as illustrated by the murderers of Brenda and Erica Lafferty. One man killed the bright and vibrant Brenda, the other killed her 15-month-old child. Which is worse? Many of us might say the man who killed the baby, but he is the one who received two life sentences, which he continues to serve in obscurity. The other, who received the death penalty, made headlines every few years until his death from natural causes in prison. Was the family denied justice in the case of life sentences? At least one family member will tell you that sentence was far more just for her than the continual court hearings involved in the death sentence. 

The desire for vengeance fades over time, especially where a sentence is final. Prosecutors choose when to seek a death sentence and should at least do so understanding that they are thus sentencing the victim’s families to a lifetime of unabated rage and public reminders of the horrors their loved one endured. If Utah insists on maintaining the fiction that it will take the life of the “worst of the worst,” any family that wants a death sentence should be fully informed by the prosecutor of what that means, including the years of hardship ahead and the likelihood that the sentence will never be carried out. 

As we approach Good Friday, please join the Diocese of Salt Lake City in encouraging Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to help build a culture of life in Utah by supporting an end to the death penalty.