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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A new defense team has been appointed for death-row inmate Ronald Watson Lafferty.
Judge Anthony Schofield on Thursday appointed attorneys Aric Cramer and William Morrison to represent Lafferty, 62, in his appeal of a 1996 conviction.
Ron Lafferty and his brother, Dan, were found guilty in the July 24, 1984, murders of Brenda Lafferty -- the wife of another of their brothers -- and her 18-month-old daughter, Erica.
Dan Lafferty claims the two were told in a revelation from God to kill the mother and child. The murders were the focus of the book, "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," written by John Krakauer and released this summer.
Dan Lafferty was convicted and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole. In a separate trial, Ron Lafferty was convicted and sentenced to die.
The conviction was overturned. He was tried again in 1996 and was again convicted and sentenced to death.
Schofield asked defense attorneys to submit their appeal of the conviction by May 17, after which the state will have until Aug. 16 to respond.
Lafferty's former attorney, Ron Yengich, withdrew from the case in August because of a conflict of interest.
Yengich said a member of Lafferty's original defense team, who has since died, had worked for his law firm. Yengich saw that as a conflict of interest because Lafferty had claimed that his original legal team provided him ineffective counsel.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
