Utah AG wants quicker executions

SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says he wants to amend the state constitution to limit appeals to speed up execution of convicted criminals.

Outlining his proposal Monday, Shurtleff said that appeals are so drawn out that the state effectively has no death penalty, The Deseret News reported. The amendment would put appeals for post-conviction relief in the hands of the Legislature instead of the courts, except when someone has evidence of actual innocence.

"There must be an end," Shurtleff said. "When it comes to the most violent crimes, there is no justice in Utah."

Barbara Noriega, whose mother and sister were killed in 1990 by a man whose death sentence is still under appeal, supported Shurtleff's proposal. She spoke to the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"The guilty are manipulating the system and the courts are enabling them," she said.

But critics said that the plan may be unconstitutional and is too drastic, the Deseret News said. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Zimmerman called it "doing brain surgery with a meat ax instead of a scalpel."