holding that the murder of three individuals within close proximity of two survivors weighed in favor of applying the aggravator
How later courts described this case
- holding that the murder of three individuals within close proximity of two survivors weighed in favor of applying the aggravator
- discussing whether the events occurred in a "brief span of time" such that they formed a "concatenating series of events"
- the two surviving victims were actually shot by the defendant just seconds apart from the murders, and the aggravator applied
- upholding earlier version of Utah's death penalty statute because it limited death to only "extreme and unusually serious and shocking crimes"
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
ELLETT, Chief Justice
(concurring):
I concur in the opinion, but desire to state that I lament and deplore the need for such a long opinion necessarily caused by rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States in cases that I consider to be outside the jurisdiction of that Court. I commend the laborious opinion by Justice Wilkins as being a proper answer to all possible objections to the death penalty in this case.