Reader comments
Utah court denies Ron Lafferty's request for new trial

HM | 1:04 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

Lets just get on with it and execute him. He has already had 21 years more life than he allowed his two victoms. Its time now to end the whole thing.

clem | 3:51 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

AMEN !!

Laytonian | 4:56 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

Gee, just another harmless Fundamentalist LDS polygamist sect. What's wrong with that?

Comments continue below

Ray | 9:55 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

How can the Utah court system continue to allow this terrible criminal to flaunt the System? He did the crime, he's done his time, now hang him and let him get to the place where his kind belongs.

Learn from Texas | 9:59 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

Here in Texas, we don't wait around for years to wrap it all up. It's nice to know that we don't have to pay for these criminals for our entire lives. By the way, if he's so incompetent, how is it that he can figure out that he's not.

Tax Payer | 11:32 p.m. Sept. 14, 2007

Come on guys. Don't you want him to have free medical and dental care? He looks very well groomed and healthy, all courtesy of our tax dollars. What a NUT CASE.....

Dot | 10:23 a.m. Nov. 30, 2007

Hey, don't blame the Utah courts. A the 10th circuit granted him his habeas petition in 1991.

Sally | 1:42 p.m. April 25, 2008

Yes, you Texans do have the right idea. Get rid of this vermin quickly. Old Ron was all fired up to kill Brenda and tiny baby, Erica, -- and he did. He didn't give them any appeals. Now when he has to pay the piper for his crimes, waa-a-a-h! He wants the US court system to save his butt. The sooner they get rid of this scumbag, the better.

Anonymous | 5:02 p.m. June 20, 2009

I just finished reading 'Under the Banner of Heaven' and it's probably the most disturbing book I've ever read...childhood background and Mormonism aside, Ron and Dan Lafferty are infantile egomaniacs who were simply pissed that Brenda was the only person with enough guts to vigorously challenge them and stand in the way of them getting their brother Allen on board the 'family train'. Why these two haven't been murdered at the hand of another prisoner or by way of the state is beyond me. They've had a long life within those prison walls where they are able to work out and get 'buff', or paint and sketch and 'wax philosophical'...Please just execute these blood thirsty, unrepentant blowhards and do the world a favor. I am not generally in favor of the death penalty, as justice cannot always be attained, especially by the indigent, however when a case is as clear cut as this...fire away!

earose | 2:19 p.m. July 4, 2009

I too have just funished reading Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" -- an absolute MUST-READ for all those who still believe that religion is the "foundation of morality." The book ends with the expectation that this religious zealot and murderer Ron Lafferty, would face execution by 2005. Obviously, this news article indicates that he continues to breathe -- and profess his narcissistic, violent beliefs under the guise of "relifgion."

Anonymous | 2:41 p.m. July 4, 2009

Texas has America's highest rate of reversed death penalties thank to the Innocence Project and DNA. Texans love to bury their many mistakes. Why let facts ruin a fantasy?

Death is better than live in jail. Conservative live in fear. They fear death. I always saw that as ironic. You say you believe in god and heaven. You claim your faith protects you. You can't drive through Heber without packing a weapon.

Name a Disciple who packed heat. If you where a real Christian, you would embrace death as part of living. It's god way of saying: mission accomplished!"

It takes courage to really be a Christian. I've know many to use the label. I may have known one christian in my 55 years.

Christians see god as being so weak and inept that they have to judge for god. One "Christian" is praying on Fox radio for Obama to die. Once, Christians believed you couldn't become anything in life without god's hand.

A true Christian would morn the lost of any life. As long as you live, you can seek redemption. We can't be gods. Let god judge.

J. Divoky | 2:19 p.m. July 18, 2009

Have this come to a close yet?

MT | 1:56 a.m. Aug. 19, 2009

I just finished reading "Under The Banner of Heaven". Dan clearly suffers from schizophrenia and his mormon fundamentalist background has allowed him to act on his morbid thought process by confusing such thoughts with "The word of God" This makes him espeacially dangerous as well as manipulative to those that live by the book of Mormon, just as Elizabeths smarts abductor manipulated her. If this guy is granted freedom, we could ultimately be dealing with "multiple Dan Lafferties" as I believe he would produce other sects that will be manipulated to agree with his own views. Do I really have to elaborate on how that could be a problem (Killing in Gods name)? His victims had no chance, so why should he be granted a second one? He murdered an infant in cold blood as well as her mother. Is there really a question as to what he deserves? His brother chose to executed by firing squad, Dan deserves a similar fate by the hands of our judicial system.

arkiejones | 7:22 p.m. Aug. 19, 2009

Have to wonder: since so many others knew of -or strongly suspected- the plans of the Lafferties to murder and did nothing or perhaps even thought nothing about it---is this more common than we want to think? I was astonished while reading "Under the Banner.....

Dee | 4:37 p.m. Oct. 29, 2009

I'd like to know WHY Dan & Ron's own mother was not charged as an accomplice or the other members of the School of Prophets that read Ron's "revelation" of killing Brenda and her baby and didn't tell anyone?! Allen, her own husband even knew about what his brothers were planning on doing and didn't say anything!! These people ought to be charged and held responsible for these murders....they could have saved Brenda and Erica's lives. SHAME ON THEM and I hope it haunts them every waking moment of their slimy lives.

Wisconsite | 10:17 a.m. Dec. 6, 2009

We don't have capital punishment in Wisconsin and I think it's a big mistake. Mass murderers like Jeffrey Dahmer go to prison where they usually live pretty comfortably though in Dahmer's case he was murdered by another inmate. This obsessing and delaying in a case like Lafferty's makes the whole judicial system seem waffling and weak. In clear cut cases like these there should be prompt and deliberate carriage of sentences.

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