THE THIRD UTAHN TO DIE BY FIRING SQUAD: RONNIE LEE GARDNER (JANUARY 16, 1961 TO JUNE 18, 2010)

On this date, June 18, 2010, Ronnie Lee Gardner was the third Death Row Inmate to die from the firing squad in Utah. He was also the seventh person to be executed in the State of Utah since 1976.

Ronnie Lee Gardner

Photo by the Utah Department of Corrections

 

Gardner was executed on the metal chair at the right side of this chamber in Utah State Prison. The two narrow rifle ports can be seen in the middle-left. Panoramic mosaic of the execution chamber at Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, USA. The platform at the left is used for lethal injection. The seat at the right and the two narrow gun ports on the far wall of the room are used for execution by firing squad. Built in 1998, the first person to be executed in this chamber was Joseph Mitchell Parsons in 1999.

Please go to this previous blog post to learn more about the condemned killer.

 

(SOURCE: http://www.jantoo.com/cartoons/keywords/firing-squads & http://www.jantoo.com/cartoons/lowres/209/20902271_low.jpg)

Please go to two of these Unit 1012 Blog Posts to hear from the victims’ families and also a rebuttal to the abolitionists.