House kills death penalty amendment

The House killed a constitutional amendment Thursday that would have said the Legislature gets to decide post-conviction appeals, especially in death penalty cases.

The bill was being pushed by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff but was opposed by various groups, including some attorneys.

It takes a two-thirds vote (50 in the House) to approve a constitutional amendment. And HJR14 failed to get that, 38-35.

Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, a former state judge, said there was no emergency to pass this controversial amendment, since it wouldn't go on the ballot for citizen approval until November 2010.

He added that the amendment turns constitutional reasoning upside down. The amendment says that the Legislature gets to detail conviction appeals, rather than the judicial branch of government. And that is not wise, he said.

But numerous legislators said it is time to remember the victims and the victims' families.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, quoted from an e-mail he got from the mother of Brenda Lafferty, who was murdered along with her 15-month-old baby by her two uncles in 1984. One of those men still sits on Utah's death row. "She asks for justice. She doesn't want to outlive (Ron Lafferty, sentenced to die) who killed her daughter and her granddaughter."

— Bob Bernick Jr.