UTAH STATE PRISON — Following a flurry of last-minute appeals in a struggle to save his life, Ronnie Lee Gardner's life ended early Friday with hardly a word.
"I do not, no," Gardner said when asked if he had any final last words, while slightly shaking his head as much as his restraints would allow.
A black hood was placed over Gardner's head, and less than a minute later, five guns made two booming sounds in quick secession — "ba-boom" — and Gardner became the third man in the United States — all of them in Utah — to be executed by firing squad since the moratorium on capital punishment in the United States was lifted in 1976.
The shots were fired at 12:15 a.m. and Gardner was pronounced dead two minutes later. From the time a curtain was opened to allow nine media members and five others to witness the execution to the time it was closed after the shooting was complete took about four minutes.
Gardner was strapped to a chair at six different places on his body: forehead, shoulders, chest, waist, wrists and ankles. On each side of the chair were 13 sandbags, nine of them stacked on top of each other. Behind the chair was a wood panel painted black. Each panel was 2 inches wide.
As the curtain opened, Gardner was fully strapped to his chair but his eyes wandered back and forth and seemed to focus on the reflective glass separating him and the media witness room. Warden Steve Turley asked Gardner if he had any final words and told him he had two minutes to make a statement.
But before the microphone was even put in front of Gardner, he said he did not have any final comments.
Gardner wore a dark blue jumpsuit and white socks, no shoes. A small, white, square target with a dark bull's-eye circle, and a dark circle around that, was Velcroed to his left breast. After the black hood was placed over his head, everyone else exited the room. About 30 seconds later, the fatal shots were fired, seemingly without warning.
"I think we were all struck as we were talking after how deceiving the sense of time was," KUER/KUED witness Doug Fabrizio said. "Particularly the time from when the warden left and Mr. Gardner was there alone to when the shots were fired. It's hard to get a sense of that. We didn't hear a command. It just happened."
Media members said they did not hear a countdown, but Corrections director Tom Patterson said the gunmen started at 5, counted down and fired when they got to 2. Patterson did not know if Gardner was able to hear their countdown.
The target on Gardner had three holes after he was shot — a large one near the bull's-eye and two smaller ones underneath. No blood came out of his chest. The only sign of what appeared to be blood was a small pool that collected after a minute near his lap.
When the curtains to the witnesses' rooms were closed again, Corrections officials removed Gardner's body and cleaned the area before allowing media members inside.
A strong smell of bleach still filled the room when media witnesses were allowed to tour the area. In the wood paneling behind the execution chair were holes from the four bullets that had apparently traveled through Gardner's body. Only 4 inches separated all the holes.
Reaction from the nine media witnesses, and three witnesses from family members of Gardner's victims, was mixed.
"Everybody said it would be gruesome and it would affect me," said Jamie Stewart, the 27-year-old granddaughter of Salt Lake County sheriff's bailiff Nick Kirk. "But it wasn't bad whatsoever. You didn't see hardly any blood. He was dressed all in black. I just feel like justice has finally been served. He deserved it."
Kirk was shot and wounded during Gardner's escape attempt from the old Salt Lake courthouse in 1985.
At Gardner's request, no members of his family witnessed the execution.
Jennifer Dobner, from The Associated Press, said Gardner's execution was not like the kind one would typically find in the movies.
"It was fast. It was almost clinical and very sanitary," she said.
KUTV reporter Fields Mosely, however, found the execution to be slightly worse than he anticipated.
"I found it very violent. … It was exactly what I expected and a little bit worse. The loudness of the guns shocked me. Even though I grew up with a Winchester 30-30 in my home and shot it many times. … It was violent and I didn't find it to be clinical at all."
"I think Ronnie Lee Gardner's last words will probably stick with me, even if they were very simple," commented Fox 13 reporter Ben Winslow.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700041289/Ronnie-Lee-Gardners-life-ends-with-hardly-a-word.html?pg=2
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