Ronnie Lee Gardner, a 49 year old inmate of the state of Utah, is going to pay the ultimate price for his crimes in June of 2010. After 25 years on death row for the murder of attorney Mitchell Burdell during a botched escape attempt, his appeals have run and it’s time to face the music. Gardner will be the first person on death row executed in Utah since 1999 when Joseph Mitchell Parsons was dispatched via lethal injection.
As would be expected there have been protestors against the death penalty claiming it is a barbaric practice and that life imprisonment is the more humane option. Others are glad to see justice being carried out in a definitive manner. There is a group in the middle however that wants to see justice carried out via an execution - they just don’t like the means of execution.
As is the practice in Utah, when the final appeal was denied and the date for execution was being settled upon, Gardner was asked what his choice was regarding the form of execution that would be used to dispatch him. Normally, the choice is lethal injection when available. Comparatively speaking, it is considered the “gentle” form of execution when compared to the gas chamber or electric chair. Under certain jurisdictions hanging is an option but very rarely is that the means employed. The final option - the one Gardner chose - is death by firing squad.
Some people that are for the execution are against the method. They feel it is inhumane, it may lead to Gardner suffering unnecessarily. There is the possibility something goes wrong, and if it does what happens then? These people in the middle just think there are better options and they should be exercised rather than death by firing squad.
The point being made is that there are 35 states that have the death penalty, and of those 35, 34 of them have not actually used death by firing squad as an option. Oklahoma is the only other state that even offers it as an option actually, and then only in the event that lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional. Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 there have only been two executions by firing squad - Gary Gilmore who muttered “Let’s do it” in 1977, and John Albert Taylor in 1996.
Currently the execution is slated for June 18, 2010, and although Gardner’s attorney is planning to try to appeal on grounds that are as yet unknown, it is unlikely that final plea or a call from the Governor granting a stay will arrive. It is not believed that the state will fail to honor Gardner's request for a firing squad regardless of any public objection. Incidentally, an online poll conducted by CBS found that as of 6:30 PM EST 4/23/10, only 22% of respondents had any negative response to death by firing squad, or execution of death row inmates at all. .