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Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, will become the first person to be put to death by firing squad since 1996 at 12:05 am Friday (0605 GMT) unless late attempts to halt the execution are successful.
Executionby firing squad was outlawed by Utah in 2004 but the ban was notretroactive, allowing Gardner to choose the gruesome method instead oflethal injection during a hearing in April.
Gardner, who hasspent 25 years on death row for gunning down an attorney in a failedescape attempt from a courtroom in 1985 during a murder trial, saw aseparate appeal to have his execution stayed turned down on Tuesday.
According to Espy and Smylka[sup][22][/sup]it is estimated that 142 men have been judicially shot in the UnitedStates and English-speaking predecessor territories since 1608,excluding executions related to the American Civil War. The Civil Warsaw several hundred firing squad deaths, but reliable numbers are notavailable. Crimes punishable by firing squad in the Civil War includeddesertion, intentionally killing a superior officer or fellow soldier,and espionage.[sup][citation needed][/sup]
Firing squad history and laws in the U.S.
Color key: [color= rgb(255, 255, 51)] [/color] Secondary method only [color= rgb(127, 255, 0)] [/color] Formerly used firing squad, but does not today [color= rgb(0, 153, 204)] [/color] Has never used firing squad
Capital punishment was suspended in the United States between 1972 and 1976, as a result of several decisions of the United States Supreme Court (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). The process resumed with the execution of Gary Gilmore on January 17, 1977, at Utah State Prison in Draper. The five executioners were equipped with .30-30 caliber rifles and off-the-shelf Winchester150 grain (9.7 g) SilverTip ammunition. The condemned was restrainedand hooded, and the shots were fired at a distance of 20 feet (6 m),aiming at the chest. According to his brother Mikal Gilmore's memoirShot in the Heart, Utah's tradition dictated that a firing squadcomprise five men — four of them with live rounds, and one with a blankround, so that each of the shooters could cast doubt to having fired afatal shot. However, upon inspecting the clothes worn by Gary Gilmoreat his execution, Mikal noticed five holes in the shirt — indicating,he wrote, that "the state of Utah, apparently, had taken no chances onthe morning that it put my brother to death"
Although Ronnie Lee Gardner has chosen execution by firing squad[sup][23][/sup], scheduled for June 2010[sup][24][/sup], until now the only other post-Furman execution by firing squad, that of John Albert Taylor in 1996, also took place in Utah. Taylor reportedly chose this method of execution, in the word of the New York Times, "to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder."[sup][25][/sup]
In Utah, the firing squad consisted of five volunteer policeofficers from the county in which the conviction of the offender tookplace.[sup][citation needed][/sup] A law passed on March 15, 2004, banned execution by firing squad in Utah, but since that specific law was not retroactive,[sup][26][/sup] four inmates (one, Roberto Arguelles died of natural causes on death row, leaving only three) on Utah's death rowcould still have their last requests granted. Thereof, on April 21,2010, Ronnie Lee Gardner requested a firing squad execution which hasbeen scheduled for June 18, 2010. A Utah judge signed a death warrantFriday, April 23, 2010, affirming Utah's sentence for the execution ofGardner. Gardner's lawyer said he planned to file an appeal, whichcould change the execution date. Gardner was sentenced to die in 1985for a botched escape attempt on April 2, 1985, during which he shot andkilled Michael Burdell, a defense attorney, and injured court bailiffGeorge "Nick" Kirk. Gardner, in court on charges stemming from the 1984robbery and shooting death of Melvyn John Otterstrom, used a gun thathad been smuggled into the old Salt Lake County Courthouse by hisgirlfriend. As of 2009, Oklahoma is the only other state in which execution by firing squad is legally available (as a backup method only; the state uses lethal injection as its primary method of execution).[sup][26][/sup]. On April 1, 2009,[sup][27][/sup] a bill to eliminate firing squad as a method of execution in Idaho was enacted, and took effect July 1, 2009.
Unbelievable.
I had no idea this could still happen.
