Senate approves judicial nominee for bench

Gov. Gary Herbert's first judicial nominee has been confirmed by the Senate to take the bench.

Ed Peterson, a deputy Uintah County attorney, was recently interviewed by the five members of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee and confirmed by the whole Senate last week. Peterson was nominated in August to fill a vacancy left by the retirement of 8th District Judge John R. Anderson.

"I think that people have an obligation to serve their community, their state and their country," Peterson told the committee. "I think I am suited to do that as a judge."

Senators questioned Peterson about his views on judicial impartiality, capital punishment and judicial activism.

"I rather expect I'll be lousy at judicial activism," Peterson said in response to a question from Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan. "I don't believe in it."

The nominee also assured senators that he is willing to hand down a death sentence should the circumstances of a case warrant such a penalty.

"It is an absolutely constitutional remedy and sentence," said Peterson, who was part of the team that prosecuted Lee Roy Wood for capital murder in the July 2001 slaying of Roosevelt Police Chief Cecil Gurr.

"I don't think it is a remedy that you should take lightly," Peterson added. "It is the most serious act the government can take — taking the life of a citizen."

Peterson, of Vernal, has worked in the Uintah County Attorney's Office since 2001 as a prosecutor and in the office's civil division. Prior to that, he was an assistant Utah attorney general in the Child Protection Division in the Uinta Basin, a pro tem district-court judge in the 3rd Circuit Court in West Valley City, a deputy Murray city attorney and an associate at Maddox & Snuffer in Murray.

Peterson earned his law degree from the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. He also holds a bachelor's degree in political science and geography from the University of Utah and is a graduate of the Judge Advocate Staff Officer course at the U.S. Air Force's Air War College.

The 8th Judicial District encompasses Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties.

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