DRAPER, Utah — A barrage of bullets tore into Ronnie Lee Gardner’s chest where a target had been pinned over his heart. Two minutes later, the twice-convicted killer was pronounced dead as blood stained his dark-blue prison jumpsuit.
It was the first time in 14 years that an American inmate was executed by firing squad — a method Gardner chose over lethal injection. Death- penalty opponents around the world reacted with horror all the same, renewing an international debate about capital punishment in the U.S.
Gardner was the third man to die by firing squad since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Unlike Gary Gilmore, who famously said “Let’s do it” before he was shot Jan. 17, 1977, Gardner offered few words. Asked whether he had anything to say before a black hood was fastened over his head, he said simply, “I do not, no.”
The five executioners were police officers who volunteered for the task. One of their .30-caliber Winchester rifles was loaded with a blank so no one would know who fired the fatal shots.
Nine journalists were permitted to observe the execution, including one from The Associated Press.
After the bullets were fired, there was no blood splattered across the white cinder-block wall and no audible sounds from the condemned. Although the dark-blue jumpsuit made it difficult to see, blood seemed to be pooling around Gardner’s waist.
He was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.
Gardner was sentenced to death in 1985 for fatally shooting an attorney during a failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.
The European Union issued a statement Friday expressing its “profound regret” for the execution.
The American Civil Liberties Union decried Gardner’s execution as an example of the “barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment.” Religious leaders called for an end to the death penalty at an interfaith vigil Thursday evening in Salt Lake City.
“Murdering the murderer doesn’t create justice or settle any score,” said the Rev. Tom Goldsmith of the First Unitarian Church.
