Ron Lafferty, Murderer Set to Be Executed by Firing Squad, Dies of Natural Causes

Ron Lafferty’s case was documented in Jon Krakauer’s 2003 book “Under the Banner of Heaven.”

A Utah inmate who spent 34 years on death row and was set to be executed by firing squad died of natural causes Monday, prison officials said. The Utah Attorney General’s Office predicted Ron Lafferty, 78, would have been executed in 2020, becoming the first American executed by firing squad in almost 10 years. CBS News reports Lafferty chose to be killed by firing squad decades ago instead of receiving a lethal injection, a choice given to death row inmates at the time. Utah has since changed its law, only allowing firing squad executions as backups if lethal injection drugs are not available. In 1984 Lafferty murdered his brother Allen’s wife Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, with his brother Dan, who received a life sentence for the killings. Ron Lafferty said he had received a message from God to kill Brenda and Erica because she did not believe in his fundamentalist belief in polygamy after he was expelled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Laffertys’ case was documented in the 2003 book Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.