ianstone
06-18-2010, 06:17 AM
My last request? Watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy... how murderer prepared to face the firing squad
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 11:10 AM on 18th June 2010
Comments (24) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#comments)
Videos (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#video)
[/URL]
Convicted killer Robert Green spent the hours before he faced the firing squad watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Utah prison officials revealed.
The death row inmate was described as 'relaxed' during his last day. He also spent time reading the novel 'Divine Justice' and sleeping.
He also met with his lawyers and a bishop from the Mormon church just hours before he was shot dead by a team of five anonymous marksmen with a matched set of .30-calibre rifles.
He had eaten his last requested meal - steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7UP - two days earlier.
Gardner, who had a white target pinned to his chest and was strapped to a chair, was pronounced dead at 12.20am (0620 GMT).
He is the first person to be executed by firing squad in the US in 14 years.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-09F341A3000005DC-78_634x422.jpg Ronnie Gardner appears before Judge Robin Reese at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, where his execution date was set
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A173E6D000005DC-612_634x548.jpg Fatal: Four bullet holes can be seen in the wooden panel behind the chair where Ronnie Gardner was restrained as the squad opened fire in Utah this morning
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A17514D000005DC-218_306x295.jpg The four bullets tore into the wooden panel. Gardner was shot at by 5 executioners - but the fifth bullet was a blank, meaning no one knows who fired the fatal shots
Utah adopted lethal injection as the default execution method in 2004, but Gardner was still allowed to choose the controversial firing squad option because he was sentenced before the law changed.
He told his lawyer he did it because he preferred it - not because he wanted the controversy surrounding the execution to draw attention to his case or embarrass the state.
Some decried the execution as barbaric, and about two dozen members of Gardner's family held a vigil outside the prison as he was shot. There were no protests at the prison.
The executioners were all certified police officers who volunteered for the task and remain anonymous.
They stood about 25 feet from Gardner, behind a wall cut with a gunport, and were armed with a matched set of .30-caliber Winchester rifles.
One 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.
Gardner was sentenced to death for a 1985 capital murder conviction stemming from the fatal courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt. Gardner was at the Salt Lake City court facing a 1984 murder charge in the shooting death of a bartender, Melvyn Otterstrom.
Gardner and his lawyers fought to stop the execution to the end.
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.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-0A09BFC9000005DC-205_634x486.jpg The rifle ports that were used by his five executioners, volunteers from local law enforcement, stationed at the far end of a 19ft by 23ft room. They were armed with .30-calibre rifles but only four of the five carried live rounds. One of the guns had a blank wax bullet allowing some doubt as to who carried out the execution
Gardner even tried to appeal to the general public, setting up an interview with CNN's Larry King Live. But the Utah Department of Corrections cancelled the phone interview minutes before it was scheduled to take place Wednesday.
Members of his family gathered outside the prison, some wearing T-shirts displaying his prisoner number, 14873. None planned to witness the execution, at Gardner's request.
'He didn't want nobody to see him get shot,' said Gardner's brother, Randy Gardner. 'I would have liked to be there for him. I love him to death. He's my little brother.'
Gardner's lawyers 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 for the man who described himself as a 'nasty little bugger'.
Gardner's life was marked by early drug addiction, physical and sexual abuse and possible brain damage, court records show.
'I had a very explosive temper,' Gardner admitted.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-0A119F66000005DC-151_634x496.jpg Gardner is restrained on the lawn at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice, in Salt Lake City after the courthouse shooting death of Michael Burdell
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 declared, 'I would like the firing squad, please.'
The firing squad has been Utah's most-used form of capital punishment. Of the 49 executions held in the state since the 1850s, 40 were by firing squad.
Gardner was the third man killed by state marksmen since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The other two were Gary Gilmore, who famously uttered the last words 'Let's do it' on January 17, 1977; and John Albert Taylor on January 26, 1996, for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl.
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, or Mormons, 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.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A1728C6000005DC-992_634x463.jpg Friends and relatives of convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner participate in a candlelight vigil as his execution takes place by firing squad
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A170923000005DC-213_634x469.jpg Clare Hogenaver, a lawyer from New York City, protests the execution of Gardner last night
The church no longer preaches such teachings and offers no opinion on the use of the firing squad.
The American Civil Liberties Union decried Gardner's execution as an example of what it called the United States' 'barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment'.
At an interfaith vigil in Salt Lake City on Thursday evening, religious leaders called for an end to the death penalty.
Burdell's family opposes the death penalty and asked for Gardner's life to be spared. In a taped statement, Burdell's father, Joseph Burdell, Jr., said he believes his son's death was not premeditated, but a "knee-jerk reaction" by a desperate Gardner attempting to escape.
But Otterstrom's family lobbied the parole board against Gardner's request for clemency and a reduced sentence.
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.
At his commutation hearing, Gardner shed a tear after telling the board his attempts to apologise to the Otterstroms and Kirks had been unsuccessful. He said he hoped for forgiveness.
'If someone hates me for 20 years, it's going to affect them,' Gardner said. 'I know killing me is going to hurt them just as bad. It's something you have to live with every day. You can't get away from it. I've been on the other side of the gun. I know.'
Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#ixzz0rCMkjzSi (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html)
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 11:10 AM on 18th June 2010
Comments (24) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#comments)
Videos (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#video)
[/URL]
Convicted killer Robert Green spent the hours before he faced the firing squad watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Utah prison officials revealed.
The death row inmate was described as 'relaxed' during his last day. He also spent time reading the novel 'Divine Justice' and sleeping.
He also met with his lawyers and a bishop from the Mormon church just hours before he was shot dead by a team of five anonymous marksmen with a matched set of .30-calibre rifles.
He had eaten his last requested meal - steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7UP - two days earlier.
Gardner, who had a white target pinned to his chest and was strapped to a chair, was pronounced dead at 12.20am (0620 GMT).
He is the first person to be executed by firing squad in the US in 14 years.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-09F341A3000005DC-78_634x422.jpg Ronnie Gardner appears before Judge Robin Reese at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, where his execution date was set
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A173E6D000005DC-612_634x548.jpg Fatal: Four bullet holes can be seen in the wooden panel behind the chair where Ronnie Gardner was restrained as the squad opened fire in Utah this morning
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A17514D000005DC-218_306x295.jpg The four bullets tore into the wooden panel. Gardner was shot at by 5 executioners - but the fifth bullet was a blank, meaning no one knows who fired the fatal shots
Utah adopted lethal injection as the default execution method in 2004, but Gardner was still allowed to choose the controversial firing squad option because he was sentenced before the law changed.
He told his lawyer he did it because he preferred it - not because he wanted the controversy surrounding the execution to draw attention to his case or embarrass the state.
Some decried the execution as barbaric, and about two dozen members of Gardner's family held a vigil outside the prison as he was shot. There were no protests at the prison.
The executioners were all certified police officers who volunteered for the task and remain anonymous.
They stood about 25 feet from Gardner, behind a wall cut with a gunport, and were armed with a matched set of .30-caliber Winchester rifles.
One 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.
Gardner was sentenced to death for a 1985 capital murder conviction stemming from the fatal courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt. Gardner was at the Salt Lake City court facing a 1984 murder charge in the shooting death of a bartender, Melvyn Otterstrom.
Gardner and his lawyers fought to stop the execution to the end.
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.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-0A09BFC9000005DC-205_634x486.jpg The rifle ports that were used by his five executioners, volunteers from local law enforcement, stationed at the far end of a 19ft by 23ft room. They were armed with .30-calibre rifles but only four of the five carried live rounds. One of the guns had a blank wax bullet allowing some doubt as to who carried out the execution
Gardner even tried to appeal to the general public, setting up an interview with CNN's Larry King Live. But the Utah Department of Corrections cancelled the phone interview minutes before it was scheduled to take place Wednesday.
Members of his family gathered outside the prison, some wearing T-shirts displaying his prisoner number, 14873. None planned to witness the execution, at Gardner's request.
'He didn't want nobody to see him get shot,' said Gardner's brother, Randy Gardner. 'I would have liked to be there for him. I love him to death. He's my little brother.'
Gardner's lawyers 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 for the man who described himself as a 'nasty little bugger'.
Gardner's life was marked by early drug addiction, physical and sexual abuse and possible brain damage, court records show.
'I had a very explosive temper,' Gardner admitted.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/17/article-0-0A119F66000005DC-151_634x496.jpg Gardner is restrained on the lawn at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice, in Salt Lake City after the courthouse shooting death of Michael Burdell
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 declared, 'I would like the firing squad, please.'
The firing squad has been Utah's most-used form of capital punishment. Of the 49 executions held in the state since the 1850s, 40 were by firing squad.
Gardner was the third man killed by state marksmen since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The other two were Gary Gilmore, who famously uttered the last words 'Let's do it' on January 17, 1977; and John Albert Taylor on January 26, 1996, for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl.
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, or Mormons, 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.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A1728C6000005DC-992_634x463.jpg Friends and relatives of convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner participate in a candlelight vigil as his execution takes place by firing squad
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/18/article-1287553-0A170923000005DC-213_634x469.jpg Clare Hogenaver, a lawyer from New York City, protests the execution of Gardner last night
The church no longer preaches such teachings and offers no opinion on the use of the firing squad.
The American Civil Liberties Union decried Gardner's execution as an example of what it called the United States' 'barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment'.
At an interfaith vigil in Salt Lake City on Thursday evening, religious leaders called for an end to the death penalty.
Burdell's family opposes the death penalty and asked for Gardner's life to be spared. In a taped statement, Burdell's father, Joseph Burdell, Jr., said he believes his son's death was not premeditated, but a "knee-jerk reaction" by a desperate Gardner attempting to escape.
But Otterstrom's family lobbied the parole board against Gardner's request for clemency and a reduced sentence.
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.
At his commutation hearing, Gardner shed a tear after telling the board his attempts to apologise to the Otterstroms and Kirks had been unsuccessful. He said he hoped for forgiveness.
'If someone hates me for 20 years, it's going to affect them,' Gardner said. 'I know killing me is going to hurt them just as bad. It's something you have to live with every day. You can't get away from it. I've been on the other side of the gun. I know.'
Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html#ixzz0rCMkjzSi (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287553/Murderer-Ronnie-Gardner-executed-firing-squad-failed-final-plea-life.html)