SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah death row inmate who pleaded guilty to murdering a mother and daughter at a remote family cabin 25 years ago now claims he's innocent and should get a new hearing to show he was wrongly convicted.

Lawyers for Von Lester Taylor say he was there that day, but his partner fired the shots that killed the two women after the pair broke into the Summit County cabin three days before Christmas in 1990.

Linae Tiede Coats watched her mother, Kaye Tiede, and grandmother, Beth Potts, die that day, and said Taylor should be executed for pulling the trigger.

"It's absurd to me that we're even at this point. A lot of things need to change in the system," Coats said Wednesday after a legislative meeting on the death penalty.

Taylor is among nine condemned killers in Utah who have yet to exhaust all of their appeals in federal and state court. The average length of stay on death row among those men is just over 23 years, with Ron Lafferty and Douglas Carter being the longest at 31 years and Floyd Maestas the shortest at 8.

State lawmakers discussed the costs of execution versus life without parole, and one legislator intends to run a bill next year aimed at shortening the appeals process.

"I'm not sure we should be doing justice based on cost. We should be doing justice based on justice," Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, told the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee. "We're not going to throw out the death penalty to save money."

The state Senate passed a bill last year to repeal the death penalty, but it didn't make it to the House floor. Proponents plan to bring it back in 2017.

Kent Hart, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, is among those who want to abolish capital punishment.

"This idea that we're going to do justice no matter how much it costs presumes that imposing the death penalty serves justice. I would say it doesn't because it doesn't deter other criminals," he said. "We know it costs more money. … Many victims want the death penalty but many do not."

Financial costs

Legislative fiscal analysts estimate a capital murder case from trial to execution in Utah costs state and local governments $1.6 million more on average than a life without parole case.

Several lawmakers questioned whether that's really all that much money when it's spread over 25 years of appeals and whether eliminating the death penalty would result in a marked savings to the state.

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said executing someone costs less than paying the medical costs for aging inmates sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Defense attorney Richard Mauro told the committee the state and counties would save money if the death penalty were abolished. Lawyers in capital cases, he said, must follow stringent guidelines, including hiring expensive investigators, expert witnesses and neuropsychiatrists.

"When you look at the costs, they are substantial, and they are substantial because of the penalty that's imposed," he said.

Mauro also said he understands the frustration over the delays in capital cases but doesn't think it's a problem because lawyers are raising issues that deserve a hearing. Taylor's lawyer, he said, didn't put much effort into his defense and advised him to plead guilty.

Ray, however, wants to speed up the process and is working on a bill for the 2017 general legislative session.

"It will be a little bit outside the box when we do it, for sure," he said, adding that he's considering ways to fund the defense better up front to avoid duplicate costs and possibly combine some of the appeals in state and federal court.

Utah lawmaker ends push to abolish death penalty

A Republican lawmaker who shepherded a longshot push to abolish the death penalty in conservative Utah said he was abandoning the effort, saying he didn't have enough time or votes to pass the measure before a midnight deadline.

Appeals process

Ray said he'd like to get the time down to 10 or 15 years, mostly to keep the victims from a long, drawn out process. Cost savings, he said, would be a byproduct of streamlining the appeals.

Assistant Utah solicitor general Andrew Peterson told the committee that 75 percent of the delays happen in federal court and he doubts the state could do much about that.

Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last person executed in Utah in 2010 after spending 24 years on death row. He was killed by firing squad. Utah passed a law last year bringing back the firing squad if the lethal injection drugs aren't available. Pharmaceutical companies no longer sell the drugs for that purpose. Ray said he believes there's a "98 percent chance" the state's next execution will be by firing squad.

In Taylor's case, he and Edward S. Deli kidnapped Coats and her sister after killing their mother and grandmother, then shot the girls' father in the head, doused him with gasoline and set the cabin on fire. The father survived.

A U.S. District judge is now weighing whether Taylor should get that new hearing.

Contributing: Ladd Egan

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