Photo from the Salt Lake Tribune Francisco Kjolseth
Yes they do–at least, and if I’m not mistaken–only in Utah. I’m at the crossroads at the west, BYU’s commencement, and saw this story in the Salt Lake Tribune about convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner. Now, before I go any further, I don’t think Mr. Gardner is a very nice person, at all. If anyone deserves to be executed–he is very close to the top of a very short list. But, I suppose the point I would make, is that we as humans, given the current inequities of our criminal justice system, simply don’t have the right, in my view, to make that decision.
The solution, of course, is to keep Mr. Gardner and his ilk in state prisons, at hard work for their entire life without the possibility of parole. Research has shown that it is actually more cost effective to do this rather than execute the condemned. This also satisfies the moral argument of who is executed, generally the poor, and the racially diverse, i.e., meaning other than white.
I was in town, for the first one of these morbid death orgies, sanctioned by Utah, on 01/17/77, Gary Mark Gilmore. If you don’t recall that legal circus, you should check out The Executioner’s Song both a Pulitzer Prize winning novel and an excellent full length motion picture. At the very end, defense attorneys and Utah’s Attorney General were flying (in the middle of the night) to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeal in Denver to beat the judicially mandated execution warrant date in order to execute (state sanctioned murder in my view) a man just months earlier the same state (Utah) went out of its way, sparing no expense to save from not one, but two suicide attempts. Surreal seems too mellow a term, and we’re about ready now for the next round.
When asked his preferred method of execution, The Tribune reported that Mr. Gardner replied as though he were ordering the number 1 burger meal at In N Out:
Shackled at his ankles and wrists and wearing an orange jump suit, Ronnie Lee Gardner leaned forward in his chair Friday and uttered seven words that will place Utah in the international spotlight.
“I would like the firing squad, please,” Gardner said, his voice choking up.
Mr. Gardner, however, to his credit may not be trying to overly sensationalize his execution (if that’s even remotely possible with a firing squad execution in the United States in the 21st Century):
Choosing bullets over lethal injection may have nothing to do with making headlines for Utah — the first state to execute a killer after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and the only to allow inmates to die by firing squad.
Gardner’s cousin, Jerry Hainsworth, said Gardner told him a few years ago: “I’d rather do it that way because I’ve been shot a bunch of times.”
That includes a bullet wound suffered during Gardner’s 1985 escape attempt from the since demolished Salt Lake County courthouse. Police shot Gardner in the neck while trying to apprehend him after he escaped from prison in 1981. Hainsworth said Gardner was shot in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle as a child, was once wounded in a shootout with a brother-in-law, and once accidently shot himself in the thigh.
This is not Mr. Gardner’s first date with death. But, his appeals appear to be drawing to a close:
After hearing Gardner’s request, 3rd District Court Judge Robin Reese on Friday signed a death warrant setting his execution date for June 18. The judge rejected Gardner’s latest appeal of his 1985 death sentence minutes earlier, leaving a Utah Supreme Court appeal or a commutation from the Utah Board of Pardons as Gardner’s only chances to avoid death.
And, so the circus begins anew, with all the protests, and accompanying media coverage:
Already on Friday opponents of capital punishment were anticipating the intense scrutiny Gardner’s death would generate for Utah.
“It’s so unusual and harks back to a whole other era,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. “This is a spectacle in a sense.”
The last Utah inmate to die by firing squad was John Albert Taylor in 1996, who said he selected the method to embarrass the state. Satellite trucks filled a large parking lot near the state prison in Draper.
Jack Ford, who was then the Utah Department of Corrections spokesman, on Friday read a list of reporters, photographers and other media personnel who were on the prison grounds. Ford estimated there were 150 media personnel in all, including major American news outlets and journalists from Great Britain, Denmark, Italy and Australia.
International journalists detailed how the shots rang out, Ford said, reporting the story as if to say, “You can’t believe what they do in the United States.”
The obvious question is: Firing Squad–in the 21st Century, United States? Really?
The current Corrections spokesman, Steve Gehrke, said as of Friday afternoon he had already received inquiries from several national media outlets. Visiting reporters will find the firing squad still has its proponents among Utah lawmakers. In 2004, when the Legislature was debating whether to eliminate the firing squad, then-Sen. David Thomas, R-South Weber, and others like him supported keeping the method.
“I know there are a lot who suggest getting rid of firing squad is more humane but we’ve had the firing squad since statehood and it’s effective,” Thomas told The Salt Lake Tribune Friday.
Of course, it’s effective–four bullets through the heart is quite an effective execution method. So, of course would beheading, hanging (which until recently was also an optional execution method in Utah) or a myriad of others.
Unfortunately the Church, which still has great influence in Utah secular life is ambivalent about Capital Punishment. In an official press release about firing squad executions specifically and capital punishment generally the Church has said:
A number of recent press reports regarding capital punishment in Utah have incorrectly implied that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endorses the state’s practice of using firing squads to carry out the death penalty. Following is the Church’s position on capital punishment:
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regards the question of whether and in what circumstances the state should impose capital punishment as a matter to be decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law. We neither promote nor oppose capital punishment.”
Of course the statement cuts both ways. Opponents can point to the phrase neither promoting, and proponents can point to neither opposing, capital punishment. As a moral issue, I think the Church should take a stand, just as they have on same sex marriage, abortion, and other important moral issues of the day. Of course, I would hope that the Church would oppose the practice, regardless of the execution method. The Catholic Church has deemed the issue important enough for many, including Catholic Bishops to formally oppose capital punishment.
So, another media driven death penalty orgy is about to begin in Utah. And, after the condemned is executed and laid to rest, his victims and their families will still be without their own loved one. But, justice, as they say, will have been served—or will it? . . .
For other coverage see:
Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Death Penalty Neither just nor moral
April 24, 2010 at 5:33 pm
You know I usually agree with you, Guy, and you’re usually eminently fair, but you’re leaving out a very relevant detail here:
Utah no longer allows execution by firing squad. Hasn’t since 2004. Gardner, and I think four others, are exceptions because of the dates of their crimes and convictions. With the potential exception of these last few, Utah executes by lethal injection, same as your state — which, by the way, apparently allows an inmate to choose the gas chamber. You want to contrast the barbarity of the gas chamber vs. firing squad, let’s talk.
Also, you paint Utah as an especially pernicious user of capital punishment — heck, practically every time you come to Utah, we seem to be shooting someone else! But I remind you that since 1850, Utah has executed 46. In the same space of time, California has executed more than 720, and your state now has almost 700 people on death row. The hands of your state and its people are not clean.
That said, I oppose capital punishment. But I oppose the use of the issue as one more club to beat up on Utah and its people, especially when pertinent facts are omitted.
April 24, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Hi Ardis,
You are correct, Utah no longer allows the newly condemned to elect a firing squad. I’m not certain that fact, however, makes the current election any less barbaric. I should clarify, if this is not already clear, I find all methods of state sanctioned killing barbaric, no matter how it is inflicted. I find some, more barbaric than others, firing squad happens to fall within that category.
I just happened to be in town when the current death warrant was signed. In the late 70’s I was actually living here attending “The BYU” as a full time student, and almost had a front row seat to the Gilmore execution–well as front row as one could get absent drawing a rifleman’s spot.
I very much enjoy visiting Utah, have spent many years living here, and have immediate and extended family all over the state. I don’t go out of my way to “bash” Utah, but I do find this particular method, i.e., firing squad a rather barbaric manifestation of state sponsored killing.
The Tribune appears to agree that its imposition, regardless of the particular method is neither fair or moral.
April 25, 2010 at 2:09 am
If your objection is to the death penalty itself, not to Utah’s imposition of it in particular, you could have found case studies for your objection a lot closer to home, and made capital punishment rather than Utah the target of your post.
I won’t bug you further.
April 24, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Death by firing squad doesn’t seem any more or less barbaric than death by lethal injection to me. Why is one method more acceptable than the other? Being shot in the heart is very quick. I would think either method should cause minimal physical suffering.
April 25, 2010 at 6:55 am
The wishy-washy stand the Church has taken is a little strange. They have such a firm stance on everything from what smoking to tithing and on this they don’t care?
April 25, 2010 at 1:11 pm
My guess is that if it did take a stand, it would be *for* the death penalty. That is, if the scriptures and past Mormon teachings are taken seriously. Does the Scriptures speak out against murder? Sure. Does it speak out against the death penalty for crimes? The exact opposite by both teachings and examples.
April 25, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Research has shown that it is actually more cost effective to do this rather than execute the condemned.
Under the current system of endless appeals, yes. In general, no. It is only in relatively recent times that it has become common for any country to be able to afford the luxury of life imprisonment for serious criminals.
It is the same deal with pirates and brigands. Under historical rules, such outlaws of the high seas were subject to immediate execution. Only recently can we entertain the possibility of long term imprisonment instead.
We might say the same for terrorists (un-uniformed, outside of a visible chain of command, no distinction between soldiers and civilians, etc.) The sort which used to be shot on the spot, along with looters and deserters.
April 25, 2010 at 7:00 pm
as capital punishment in this nation has overwhelmingly killed more blacks than any other group, I cannot imagine why anyone would endorse capital punishment in this country.
But because capital punishment is still allowed, I prefer the more violent type of death. Show the blood. Show just how awful it is and maybe we might get a change of heart. So bring on the guns.
April 26, 2010 at 8:38 am
Not quite, Dan. Of the 1202 people who have been executed in the U.S. since 1976, 418 were black (35%), and 673 were white (56%).
April 26, 2010 at 8:39 am
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976
April 27, 2010 at 3:40 am
heh, John Mansfield,
Do you realize you’re making my point? Exactly how many blacks live in Utah?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah#Demographics
Whites make up 95% of the population in Utah. Whites make up 1%! One FREAKING PERCENT! And yet, according to your link, they make up 35% of those who have been executed in Utah.
April 27, 2010 at 3:41 am
bah, that should read:
Whites make up 95% of the population in Utah. Blacks make up 1%!
April 27, 2010 at 3:50 am
Sorry, you confused me with your link, John. You are showing the statistics for the whole country. Let me slow down a sec.
In Utah, according to your website, there is one black person on death row and six white persons. Two Latinos and 1 Native American. Such few numbers don’t say much about how race plays a factor in the death penalty in Utah.
However, in the nation, that’s a totally different story.
12% of the United States is black. 35% of executed criminals are black. End of story.
A good website that shows the bias against blacks in regard to the death penalty is also from the website you linked to
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_20_103/ai_101613577/
It’s not even close, John.
April 28, 2010 at 4:07 am
Dan, take a look at the table below for the murders of 2008. Then tell us what you think.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_06.html
I don’t see much bias towards executing black murderers more than white murderers. I do see a bias against executing the murderers of black victims.
April 28, 2010 at 5:29 am
That FBI report puts the race of murderers for 2008 at 48% white, 47% black, 2% other, and 2% unknown.
The NAACP report cited on the deathpenaltyinfo.org site gives the race of those executed since 1976 at 56% white, 35% black, 7% Latino, and 2% other.
April 28, 2010 at 12:06 pm
John,
Blacks make up only 12% of the whole American population yet account for 35 or so percent of its death penalty candidates? There has always been a bias against blacks. Sorry man, it’s not changed.
April 28, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Dan, blacks in America murder a lot more per capita than whites do. They are 47% of our murderers but only 35% of those executed.