Killers Given June Execution Dates in Two Utah Crimes
Self-proclaimed prophet Ronald Lafferty and confessed killer Arthur Gary Bishop were given June execution dates Friday in separate court hearings in Utah.
Lafferty, 46, a one-time Highland city councilman, was ordered to die June 24 by firing squad after refusing at a hearing in Provo to select between the legal options of firing squad or lethal injection.
Lafferty, police and prosecutors said, claimed to receive a divine revelation instructing him and his brother, Dan, to “remove” six people, including his sister-in-law, Brenda Wright Lafferty, 24, and her baby, Erica. The two were murdered in their American Fork home but none of the other people were harmed.
Dan Lafferty was sentenced to life in prison.
Bishop, 38, a former bookkeeper and confessed killer of five Salt Lake County boys, chose lethal injection.
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