Steven Hansen

Steven Hansen was the judge who presided over Ron Lafferty’s 1996 sentencing. His measured handling of Lafferty’s courtroom outbursts culminated in a death sentence by firing squad, making him the judicial voice that turned the jury’s verdict into a specific punishment.

Role in the Proceedings

During pretrial hearings, Lafferty treated Hansen as part of his delusional beliefs: he believed a spirit had taken possession of the judge. Lafferty directed profanities and insults at him, behavior that figured in the defense’s argument that he was mentally incompetent. The account presents Hansen as the target of Lafferty’s hostility, not as a participant in the disputes over his mental state.

Sentencing Hearing

On May 31, after Lafferty’s conviction, Hansen called the court to order and invited him to make a final statement. Lafferty responded with several minutes of insults. Hansen calmly asked whether he had finished, then formally adjudged that he be sentenced to death.

Hansen next asked Lafferty to choose between execution by firing squad and lethal injection. Lafferty said he wanted to live, but when Hansen explained that he would impose lethal injection in the absence of a choice, Lafferty selected the firing squad. Hansen confirmed the choice and imposed that method of execution.

Narrative Significance

The exchange contrasts the court’s formal procedure with Lafferty’s contemptuous defiance: Hansen’s questions required a method to be selected, and his ruling gave that selection legal force. The book also links the firing-squad sentence to its discussion of blood atonement, using the proceeding to broaden its focus beyond Mormon Fundamentalists to other modern Americans who believe in that idea. Hansen’s role in the account is therefore both judicial and emblematic: he calmly administers the state’s punishment while Lafferty frames his fate through religious language.