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Ronnie Lee Gardner Executed By Firing Squad

Utah — A death row inmate who had fatally shot two men Died by firing squad Friday,
he was executed by a team of marksmen – the first time Utah used the firing squad
to carry out a death sentence in over 14 years.
A target was pinned over Ronnie Lee Gardner’s heart where. Two minutes later he was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.

He was the third man to die by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated
capital punishment in 1976.

Unlike Gary Gilmore, who famously uttered the last words “Let’s do it” on Jan. 17, 1977,
Gardner could muster few words before a black hood was fastened over his head.
Asked if he had anything to say during the two minutes afforded him,
Gardner said simply, “I do not, no.”

The five certified police officers who volunteered for the task of executioners,
remain anonymous, stood about 25 feet away, behind a wall with a cutout gunport, and were
armed with matching .30-caliber Winchester rifles. One of the execution guns was loaded with a blank, so no
one knows who fired the fatal shot. Sandbags stacked behind Gardner’s chair kept the
bullets from ricocheting around the cinderblock room.

Utah Department of Corrections Director Thomas Patterson said the countdown
cadence went “5-4-3…” the volunteer executioner’s starting to fire at the count of 2.

Gardner’s arm tensed and jerked when he was hit. As the medical examiner checked
for vital signs the hood was removed, revealing that Gardner’s head was tilted back
and to the right, his mouth slightly open.

“I don’t agree with what he done or what they done but I’m relieved he’s free,” said
Gardner’s brother, Randy Gardner, after the execution. “He’s had a rough life.
He’s been incarcerated and in chains his whole damn life, now he’s free.
I’m happy he’s free, just sad the way he went.”

The execution was witnessed by media representatives who are separated from witnesses
for the victims or the condemned in rooms on opposite ends of the execution chamber
behind reflective glass so they can’t be seen.

Gardner walked willingly to his execution, in stark contrast to the
fatal escape attempt he undertook 25 years ago that resulted in his death sentence.

Gardner was sentenced to death after being convicted of murder in 1985 for the fatal
courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt.
Gardner was at the Salt Lake City court facing a murder charge
in the shooting death of a bartender, Melvyn Otterstrom when he took a gun smuggled
into him and he shot Burdell in the face as the attorney hid behind a door
in the chaotic courthouse.

The execution process was set in motion in March when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected
a request from Gardner’s attorney to review the case. On April 23, state court Judge
Robin Reese signed a warrant ordering the state to carry out the death sentence.

At that hearing, Gardner politely declared, “I would like the firing squad,
please.”
He told his lawyer he did it because he preferred to die that way. Gardner was
allowed to choose between the firing squad and lethal injection because he was
sentenced to death before Utah eliminated the firing squad as an option in 2004.

Gardner, 49, chose his manner of death and then worked furiously with his lawyers to prevent it.
They filed petitions with state and federal courts, asked a Utah parole board
to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, and finally unsuccessfully
appealed to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gardner’s attorneys argued the jury that sentenced him to death in 1985 heard no
mitigating evidence that might have led them to instead impose a life sentence.
Gardner’s life was marked by early drug addiction, physical and sexual abuse and
possible brain damage, court records show.

They also argued he could not get a “fair and impartial hearing” before Utah’s Board of Pardons
and Parole because lawyers that represent the board work for the Utah attorney general’s office,
which sought his death warrant and argued against the board commuting Gardner’s death sentence

The firing squad has been Utah’s most-used form of capital punishment. Fourty Of the 49 executions
held in the state since the 1850s were by firing squad.

Historians say the method stems from 19th Century doctrine of the state’s predominant religion.
Early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believed in the concept of
“blood atonement” – that only through spilling one’s own blood could a condemned person adequately
atone for their crimes and be redeemed in the next life.

Gardner spent his last day sleeping, reading the novel “Divine Justice,” watching the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy
and meeting with his attorneys and a bishop with the Mormon church. A prison spokesman said
officers described his mood as relaxed. He had eaten his last requested meal – steak, lobster tail,
apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7UP – two days earlier.

Family members gathered outside the prison, some wearing T-shirts displaying his prisoner number, 14873.
At Gardner’s request, None witnessed the execution.

The American Civil Liberties Union described Gardner’s execution as an example of what it called
the United States’ “barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment.”
And religious leaders called for an end to the death penalty at an interfaith vigil
in Salt Lake City on Thursday evening.

George “Nick” Kirk, was a bailiff at the courthouse the day of Gardner’s botched escape.
Shot and wounded in the lower abdomen, Kirk suffered chronic health problems the rest of his life.

Kirk’s daughter, Tami Stewart, said before the execution she believed Gardner’s death would bring ‘
her family some closure.

“I think at that moment, he will feel that fear that his victims felt,” she said.

Your thoughts and comments are welcomed…

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