She once wanted Ron Lafferty to die. Now she's fighting to repeal Utah's death penalty

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

50% : That's why she said she wants to give a "gift" to other future victims' families by taking the death penalty off the table.
48% : "No, we'll give it a stay of execution for another year," he said.
48% : Dunham, who for the Death Penalty Information Center monitors what states across the nation are doing regarding capital punishment, said there are plenty of factors that are making Utah a particularly interesting state to watch in the coming months.
47% : Sensationalized by the drama of the death penalty, Ron Lafferty's name hit headline after headline as his case inched its way through the court system for more than three decades.
47% : Since then, her resolve against the death penalty has grown only stronger.
44% : Asked during his monthly PBS Utah news conference Thursday about whether he would sign the bill if it passes, the governor said he hasn't "made a final decision," but he's had "occasion to reevaluate my feelings about the death penalty."
44% : "People who are looking at the United States and are interested in the death penalty believe that Utah is one of the states that may well abolish very soon," Dunham said.
42% : Now, Weeks has positioned herself as one of the state of Utah's most powerful voices against the death penalty.
42% : But as she watched his case crawl through years of appeals, she said she no longer sees the death penalty as effective.
41% : Weeks said she's still a proponent for the idea of the death penalty, but, she said, "I just know it's not viable. ...
41% : Since 1973, 185 death row inmates have been exonerated in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a national nonprofit that provides data and analysis on capital punishment.
40% : He pointed out polls generally show most Utahns support the death penalty.
40% : A 2010 Deseret News-KSL poll showed 79% of Utahns either strongly or somewhat favored the death penalty.
40% : The West has a "kind of frontier personality," he said, "especially in the Mountain West, where there is a distrust of government interference in day-to-day life."
39% : Ronald Watson Lafferty, convicted for the brutal killing, was supposed to die by execution on or around July 19, 1996 -- what would have been Brenda Lafferty's 36th birthday, Weeks said.
39% : Colorado abolished its death penalty last year.
39% : "One line I heard was, 'If we don't trust the government to fix potholes and regulate shoelaces, why would we trust it with capital punishment?'
38% : For years, Weeks wanted him to die by execution to give her family justice and relief for his horrific crimes.
38% : She has two veteran Republican lawmakers who say they've searched their souls and changed their minds about whether capital punishment should be on Utah's books.
38% : She said Creighton Horton, a prosecutor who worked on Ron Lafferty's case, has since apologized to her and said the death penalty, for victims' families, is "a counterfeit promise."
38% : The Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice recently completed a study that concluded state and local governments spent roughly $40 million over 20 years on death penalty cases.
37% : Ray said the case of Dave Noriega, a KSL radio talk show host whose grandmother and aunt were brutally murdered in their Summit County cabin, is a "great example" of a victim's family member who supports the death penalty.
37% : "There's a regional dimension to capital punishment," he said.
34% : As they stayed in touch, in the years before and after Ron Lafferty's death, Snow said his feelings about capital punishment have changed.
33% : However, in 2018, a study by the state's Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice suggested Utahns' support of the death penalty could be waning.
31% : Ray, who in 2015 successfully championed a bill to legalize the firing squad in Utah if lethal injection drugs aren't available, believes the death penalty should remain on the books for the most hardened and deserving of criminals.

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