This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Utah House approved a bill Friday that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty in human trafficking cases where a victim of the trafficking is killed.

"The fact that you're profiting by taking kids and putting them in prostitution and now [the penalty] is maybe a slap on the wrist and fine and a couple years in prison, to me this is a deterrent" to a business model that makes money off people, said Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, the sponsor of HB136.

Under existing law, the death penalty can be imposed in cases of child abuse, arson or burglary when someone is killed in the process.

"Human trafficking probably meets or exceeds the severity" of those crimes, Ray said.

House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, questioned if there was any data that capital punishment would actually be a deterrent.

Ray acknowledged there was no such data, but he believed it would be. It would also likely lead more defendants to plead guilty to get a life prison sentence in such situations, rather than face the potential of the death penalty, Ray said.

"This is a tool in the tool kit for prosecutors," Ray said. "If you have someone who is that heinous, [prosecutors] have the ability to go after the death penalty."

But King said it was a mistake for the state to go down that path.

"I think this is a move that is ill-advised from a number of different perspectives," King said, including concerns that innocent people have been or could be put to death in the process.

The House passed the bill 44-28 and sent it to the Senate for consideration.

Twitter: @RobertGehrke