The StandDown Texas Project

Firing Squads in the Future?

"Could firing squad make a comeback in Utah, elsewhere?" is by Emiley Morgan for Utah's Deseret News.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

When Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010 at the Utah State Prison in Draper, more than 59 journalists from news outlets from around the globe descended upon Utah to cover the event.

Reporters from Japan and Great Britain called it “a Wild West way of dispatching people” and referenced John Wayne movies.

But as anti-death penalty pharmaceutical companies in Europe refuse to sell the drugs necessary for lethal injections to prisons in the United States and in the wake of botched lethal injection executions in recent months, the firing squad could be making its return to Utah and other places.

“I’ve had several states actually call (to ask about the firing squad),” Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said. “They asked me not to name them because they don’t want the media circus on it. But they’re in the same boat we are — they can’t get the drugs, either.”

Botched executions involving lethal injections in Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio earlier this year have led Ray to believe that the method could face constitutional challenges as well. For that reason, he is proposing legislation that would bring back the firing squad as the secondary execution method in Utah, should the primary method, lethal injection, be found unconstitutional or unavailable.

Related posts are in the firing squad category index.  You can jump to news and commentary of the 2010 Utah execution.  Earlier coverage from Utah begins at the link.

In Wyoming

WyoFile posts a column by Kerry Drake, "Death penalty opponents are making gains in Wyoming."  Here are several excerpts:

The idea someone whose punishment is sitting in a prison cell for the rest of his life may have it worse than if he’d been killed by the state is a theme the committee discussed. In fact, it’s a central part of the argument advanced by many who would like to see the death penalty abolished.

But first, legislators debated a bill to address another capital punishment controversy. How can you humanely kill a prisoner by lethal injection if the countries that manufacture the chemicals used in the process consider the practice so barbaric, they won’t sell them to American prisons?

During the last budget session, Sen. Bruce Burns (R-Sheridan) sponsored a bill to use a firing squad, like Utah does. But problems obtaining the banned chemicals weren’t well known then, and it was quickly defeated. The national media treated it as an example of a trigger-happy state anxious to cull its prison population.

But after horrific, botched lethal injection attempts in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona, the Judiciary Committee not only considered Burns’ bill, it decided to sponsor the measure.

And:

The second proposal, to end capital punishment, drew a much more emotional response. That’s not a surprise, since many hold opposite views on an issue that really is a matter of life or death. But  I didn’t expect this: A majority of members actually supported the bill. That would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but the anti-death penalty contingent is definitely changing some minds.

Also:

While the panel voted 7-6 to end the death penalty, the Judiciary Committee will not sponsor the bill. It takes a majority of both House and Senate members approving a measure to gain such sponsorship, and the bill died 4 to 1 on the Senate side. Only Democratic Sen. Esquibel voted for it.

But death penalty opponents shouldn’t feel disheartened. The bill got five Republican votes from House members, which is considerable progress. Several said they felt the issue is important enough to be debated by the entire legislature.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.

Wyoming Examines Execution Methods

"Panel endorses firing squad for capital cases," is the AP report, via the Star-Herald.

The Wyoming Department of Corrections should be able to employ a firing squad to execute condemned inmates if the state can't find the drugs to carry out lethal injections, a legislative committee voted Friday.

Meeting in Laramie, the interim Joint Judiciary Committee advanced a firing-squad bill for the full Legislature to consider when it convenes early next year. The committee rejected another bill that would have called for the state to repeal the death penalty altogether.

Steve Lindly, deputy director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections, told lawmakers that states across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to find drugs to carry out lethal-injection executions. Current Wyoming law sets the gas chamber as the state's fallback position only if the courts found lethal injection unconstitutional. But the law doesn't address what to do if the necessary drugs are simply unavailable. The state doesn't have a gas chamber.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.  Related posts are in the firing squad category index.

Oklahoma Roundup

The Sunday Tulsa World reported, "Inside Oklahoma's execution chamber: What happens in the small, dark room," by Ziva Branstetter.  Here's the beginning of this lengthy report:

The room where Oklahoma’s three executioners have carried out their lethal duties since 1992 is the size of a walk-in closet and so dimly lit they are provided a flashlight to see, according to court records.

Cleaning supplies have been stored in the “drug room,” where executioners administer the lethal drugs. A small window in the door provides only a partial view of the inmate being executed. If something goes wrong, the executioners stick colored pencils through holes in the drug room wall to communicate with the doctor and others in the death chamber.

Depositions by Department of Corrections officials and affidavits by attorneys who toured death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary describe in detail the cramped, dark and isolated conditions inside the execution chamber. The documents are part of past legal challenges to the state’s lethal injection process.

The article also includes these links:

Read a 2007 medical expert’s report that describes multiple failures in Oklahoma’s execution process.

Read attorney Janet Chesley’s account of visiting the chamber in 2006.

"Oklahoma Lawmakers To Consider Execution By Gas," is the AP report, via KOTV-TV.

Oklahoma would become the first state to execute condemned inmates using nitrogen gas to asphyxiate them under a proposal that will be presented next week to a legislative committee.

Oklahoma City Republican Rep. Mike Christian says he will unveil details of the plan Tuesday during an interim study of the House Judiciary Committee and that he plans to introduce a bill next year.

And:

Christian initially proposed the use of a firing squad, but said nitrogen asphyxiation would be painless and easier to carry out.

Louisiana is also exploring the possibility of using nitrogen in a gas chamber.  Related posts are in the gas chamber category inex.

"Death row inmate worries he’ll suffer a sloppy execution," is by Janelle Stecklein of CNHI News Service, via the Muskogee Daily Phoenix.

Since July, Richard Glossip has been listening to renovations inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The noise is a constant reminder that his days are numbered.

Glossip, 51, is scheduled to be the second inmate executed under new procedures for lethal injections in Oklahoma, and in a newly renovated chamber.

Convicted in a murder-for-hire plot, he lives on death row in a small cell that he says is beneath the execution chamber.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

LA Times Interview with Judge Alex Kozinski

"Judge Alex Kozinski on bringing back firing squads: No, I wasn't kidding," is by Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison.  Here's the first question of this must-read:

Were you being hyperbolic about firing squads to get our attention?

No, I was quite serious. We've had a lot of litigation about problems with [lethal] drugs. Meanwhile we are spending an immense amount of money and resources, and giving false hopes to the victims' families, and we don't really have a death penalty at all in California.

I never thought using drugs was a good idea. People who make the equipment, the drugs, the catheters — they're involved in lifesaving, not killing. Lethal injection in particular, it's all hands-on; they have to strap the body down, they have to put the catheter in, take the vital signs. It's a hard position for a doctor. If there's still a pulse or heartbeat, maybe they'll give more drugs to finish the job, so the doctor is put in a position of essentially helping them.

With a firing squad, you strap him down and leave him and somebody else does the shooting. The people doing the shooting don't have to see him up close; in fact, you don't even need people to pull the trigger anymore. You can have it triggered remotely.

Of course it does raise the question of whether we are really comfortable with having a death penalty that literally sheds blood. The thing about the drugs is that it's a mask — you're not really shedding blood. [But] it's just as violent, just as brutal.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of Judge Kozinski's dissent, with a link to the dissent itself.

Additional Arizona Coverage & Commentary

The Los Angeles Times Opinion LA blog posts, "Why mask the ugliness of executions? Bring back firing squads, judge says," by Scott Martelle.

These killings committed in our names are not pretty. This is brutality, pure and simple, and a brutality that serves no public interest, coming too long after the crime to serve as either punishment or deterrent. And the solution is not to speed up the process. As it is, a conservative estimate suggests an error rate of 4% in sentencing the innocent to death.

Recent polls have shown an erosion of public support for capital punishment, with one recording a slight majority of Americans now opposing it. Could it be that we’re slowly becoming a civilized nation? Could we be nearing the point at which we recognize the moral and ethical failure at the heart of giving our government the power to kill fellow citizens?

One can hope.

"Appeals court judge argues for return of firing squads," is by Arizona Republic columnist EJ Montini.

The chief judge of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has a suggestion to prevent legal challenges to lethal injection as a method of execution:

Bring back firing squads.

I am not making this up.

The Republic also publishes the news report, "High court clears Ariz. to execute inmate today," by Michael Kiefer.

In their motions for a stay of execution, Wood's attorneys cited a long history of transparency about executions, from the display of ropes used in hangings to information about the gas chamber that still sits across the viewing room from the lethal-injection chamber in the death house at the Florence prison.

In recent years, the federal defender's office has been battling the state over secrecy.

"The people of Arizona have decided that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment," said Dale Baich, a federal public defender. "They should equally decide that the death penalty cannot remain shrouded in secrecy that prevents ... the public, the courts and the condemned from knowing if executions are carried out in compliance with all state and federal laws," Baich said.

The argument will continue in U.S. District Court in an ongoing lawsuit.

But Wood will no longer be part of the argument.

"First Amendment fight won't stop Arizona execution," is the updated AP filing, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Wood has one more last-ditch appeal for a stay of execution before the U.S. Supreme Court, Wood's attorney, Dale Baich said.

Earlier coverage of the Arizona case begins at the link.

Latest Developments in the Arizona LI Challenge

The 9th Circuit ruling in Wood v. Ryan, with Judge Kozinski's dissent is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"ARIZONA EXECUTION DRUG CASE HEADS TO SUPREME COURT," is by Astrid Galvan and Jim Salter of Associated Press.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Arizona cannot execute a death row inmate without providing detailed information about the drugs intended for his lethal injection, a decision that prompted state officials to say they will take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The dispute centers on whether a man convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend and her father should have access to information the state of Arizona has refused to provide, and it comes amid nationwide scrutiny surrounding capital punishment and whether condemned inmates unduly suffer.

Arizona officials lost their attempt to overturn a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled recently that death row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood, convicted in the 1989 shooting deaths, "raised serious questions" about whether he should have "access to lethal injection drug information and executioner qualifications."

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Federal appeals court refuses rehearing on Arizona execution case," by Michael Muskal.

Arizona is expected to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the stay of execution.

Wood, 55, had been scheduled to die for the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz, in Tucson.

In seeking a delay, Wood’s lawyers had argued that their client had a right to know which drugs would be used in the execution and how the state had developed its protocol for administering a lethal injection. The lawyers maintained that Wood had a 1st Amendment right to such information.

“The 9th Circuit has correctly recognized the importance of the information Joseph Wood seeks. Without greater transparency from the state, it's impossible for the public to engage in informed debate, which is the cornerstone of democracy. We look forward to Arizona's compliance with this ruling,” Dale Baich, Wood’s attorney, said in a statement on Monday.

"Judge Kozinski: Bring Back the Firing Squad," is by Jacob Gershman at the Wall Street Journal Law blog.

One of the nation’s most prominent judges is urging states that have the death penalty to abandon lethal injection and switch to the “more primitive” but “foolproof” firing squad as their primary method of executing death-row inmates.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote a blistering critique of lethal injection in a dissenting opinion in the death-penalty case of Joseph Wood, an Arizona convicted murderer whose July 23 execution was delayed by a Ninth Circuit panel on Saturday.

The court on Monday refused to rehear the case before the entire bench, letting stand a panel’s decision to hold up Mr. Wood’s execution until more was disclosed about the drugs and the executioners to be used in his lethal injection.

"Arizona execution remains on hold, could go to Supreme Court," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.

The full court did not offer an explanation for why it was declining to rehear the case. The panel of judges staying the execution had said that providing more information about how the death penalty is carried out is essential for both the public and the courts.

Both issues cited by the panel in its stay – the type of drugs used and the qualifications of the medical personnel involved — have been factors during executions this year. The two-drug combination that Arizona will use (medazolam and hydromorphone) was used in a January execution in Ohio that caused an inmate to choke, gasp and take nearly 25 minutes to die. Meanwhile, after an inmate grimaced and writhed during a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma, an independent autopsy found that the execution team failed to place the IV properly.

The Washington Post also reports, "Guillotine, firing squads better than lethal injection, says prominent federal judge," by Fred Barbash.

Kozinski let loose on the whole attempt, as he put it, to “mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments.”

Executions “are, in fact, nothing like that … and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality,” he wrote. If the state’s going to kill, it should at least do it effectively, he said.

“The guillotine is probably best but seems inconsistent with our national ethos. And the electric chair, hanging and the gas chamber are each subject to occasional mishaps. The firing squad strikes me as the most promising. Eight or ten large-caliber rifle bullets fired at close range,” he wrote in his dissent, “can inflict massive damage, causing instant death every time. There are plenty of people employed by the state who can pull the trigger and have the training to aim true.”

Unlike drugs used for lethal injections, he said, guns and ammunition are bought by the state “in massive quantities for law enforcement purposes, so it would be impossible to interdict the supply. And nobody can argue that the weapons are put to a purpose for which they were not intended,” as unlike medications, “firearms have no purpose other than destroying their targets.”

"Top judge attacks lethal injection as Arizona fails in death penalty appeal," is by Ed Pilkington for the Guardian.

One of America’s top judges has launched a dramatic attack on the use of medical drugs in executions, stating that the attempt to disguise the brutality of the death penalty by giving condemned prisoners the appearance of serenity in their final moments is “doomed to failure” and that the country should return to the firing squad.

The sharply-worded statement from Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the ninth circuit federal appeals court, came as the court on Monday denied Arizona’s attempt to challenge the postponement of an inmate’s execution over the secrecy of its capital punishment procedures. Arizona state officials say they will now appeal to the US supreme court.

Kozinski’s statement represents one of the most high-profile attacks on the US death penalty. It adds to the sense of crisis surrounding the sentence in the wake of a European-led boycott of lethal injection drugs that has forced states to adopt increasingly desperate measures including new drug protocols and secrecy laws.

In his statement, Kozinski says that the decision made in the 1970s to move from the traditional methods of judicial killing - such as the electric chair, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad – to lethal injections using medical drugs was misguided. “Subverting medicines meant to heal the human body to the opposite purpose was an enterprise doomed to failure,” he writes.

Additional coverage includes:

"U.S. court denies bid to reconsider stay of Arizona execution," by David Schwartz for Reuters, via the Chicago Tribune.

"Appeals Judge Says Guillotine 'Probably Best' for Executions," by Tracy Connor for NBC News.

"Kozinski dissent: ‘Firing squads can be messy’ but they are better than lethal injection," by Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal.

Courthouse News Service posts, "9th Circuit Puts Killer's Execution on Hold," by Tim Hull.

"Arizona Execution Postponed By Appeals Court," by Al Macias at Phoenix NPR station KJZZ-FM.

"The Death Penalty Is Becoming a First Amendment Issue," by Ben Richmond for Motherboard.

MSNBC has posted a video link from the Monday night's Rachel Maddow Show, "Execution drug secrecy blocked by court."

Michael Kiefer, senior reporter for the Arizona Republic, talks with Rachel Maddow about the significance of a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Arizona must reveal the source of its execution drug before it can kill a prisoner with it.

Earlier coverage of the Arizona lethal injection challenge begins at the link.

Continuing Coverage From Oklahoma

"Oklahoma lawmaker seeks other execution options," is by the Associated Press, via the Norman Transcript.

State Rep. Mike Christian said he's formally requesting a legislative hearing on the state's death penalty procedures following the April 29 death of Clayton Lockett, whose vein collapsed prompting prison officials to halt his punishment and note the execution drugs weren't administered properly.

Lockett died of an apparent heart attack about 43 minutes after the execution began.

Christian, a former state highway patrolman from Oklahoma City, said he believes a firing squad would be the most logical second option after lethal injection.

"Firing squad, hanging and electric chair. I think those are the three that are definitely constitutional," said Christian, who earlier this year called for the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices who supported a temporary stay of execution for Lockett. "I think just about anybody in Oklahoma would support some of these ideas we're talking about."

Christian has said previously he wouldn't care if condemned inmates in Oklahoma were beheaded or fed to lions.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

North Carolina, Wyoming OpEds

"Time for death penalty in North Carolina to fade into the past," is Mia Harrison White's OpEd in the Greensboro News-Record on North Carolina.

Your May 4 editorial, “Justice botched,” is a perfect example of why we should replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.

As a conservative Republican and former member of the General Assembly, I strongly believe in tough punishment for people like Clayton Lockett. However, as the distinguished columnist George Will once said, “Conservatives, especially, should draw this lesson. ... Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.”

The botched execution of Lockett by lethal injection in Oklahoma graphically illustrates Will’s point.

And:

As a conservative seeking to find the best way to protect the citizens of this great state from crime, I believe the death penalty has had its day in North Carolina. It is time to begin the debate on replacing it with life in prison without parole.

"Shoot down death penalty," is by Rodger McDaniel for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

"Let's do it!"

Those were Gary Gilmore's final words before the last state-organized firing squad executed him in 1967.

"Let's do it!"

Those are the words of state Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, who proposed returning to firing squads for executions.

Wyoming, like other states, is having a hard time finding the drugs necessary to mix a prisoner's final cocktail.

We saw what happened when Oklahoma experimented on an inmate last month. No one wants that repeated here.

And there is a man on death row awaiting the outcome of his appeals. Legislators and the Department of Corrections feel a sense of urgency about finding an alternative.

One option apparently not on the table is abolishing the death penalty. There are good reasons to do so, but not good politics. It's easier to tell the voters how to kill someone than it is to explain why the state should not do so.

Earlier coverage from North Carolina and Wyoming, at the links.  Also available, more on conservative opposition to capital punishment.

A Humane Execution

That's the title of Marcia Coyle's report at the National Law Journal.  It's subtitled, "Supreme Court test of protocol seems likely."  Here's the beginning:

In the long arc of America's search for the most humane way to execute criminals, lethal injection evolved as the gold standard. So why are Utah and Wyoming lawmakers reconsidering firing squads?

Problems with obtaining drugs for lethal injection, lawsuits over state secrecy surrounding the drugs being used and a botched execution last month in Oklahoma may be diminishing the ­confidence that some lawmakers and judges have expressed in that execution method, some death penalty experts say.

Adding to the controversy, the U.S. Supreme Court, in an unusual order on May 21, halted the execution of a Missouri inmate and directed a lower federal appellate court to take a closer look at his claims that lethal injection, in his unique medical condition, would violate his constitutional rights.

"We're in the throes of that good-faith effort to make [the death penalty] work, but the wheels have come off the wagon as we see how states are trying to carry out these executions," said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "As the death penalty gets rarer and rarer, questions of arbitrariness are coming up again. It may be beyond us to really make this work in a way that any of us would want it to work."

Earlier coverage of the Missouri case of Russell Bucklew begins at the link.

The Secret Shame of the Death Penalty

That's the title of the Friday editorial in the New York Times.

Welcome to the macabre absurdity of the modern American death penalty. Of course, death by lethal injection became the standard method only because earlier methods — from hanging to the firing squad to the electric chair — were deemed too “barbaric,” not because the state was taking a human life, but because the method of execution offended the sensitivities of the public in whose name the killing is carried out.

By now, it is clear that lethal injection is no less problematic than all the other methods, and that there is no reason to continue using it. But capital punishment does not operate in the land of reason or logic; it operates in a perpetual state of secrecy and shame.

In most cases, it is conducted late at night, behind closed doors, and as antiseptically as possible. Were it to be done otherwise, Americans would recoil in horror, as they did after the debacle in Oklahoma. Mr. Bucklew’s unusual case shows that death-penalty supporters can’t have it both ways. If they want the United States to remain a global outlier by killing its citizens, they must accept that there are no clean executions.

"Execution drugs unavailable, states eye electric chairs, firing squads," is Scott Martelle's column in the Los Angeles Times.

So what do you do when you’re a death penalty state and the rest of the civilized world refuses to sell you the drugs for your lethal injections? Turn back the clock, apparently.

In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday signed a law that would allow prison officials to strap the condemned into an electric chair should drugs become unavailable for lethal injections. In Wyoming, there’s talk of bringing back the firing squad (the state already allows for poison gas as a backup, but apparently it doesn’t have a gas chamber). What’s next, mass public hangings? Drawing-and-quartering, with heads left on pikes at the city gates?

That states are looking to previously rejected execution methods indicates just what a problem this has become. Most of the industrialized world — the United States’ peer nations — did away with this barbaric practice long ago. European-based pharmaceutical companies refuse to export drugs to prisons for use in executions. The American Medical Assn., the American Board of Anesthesiologists and the American Nurses Assn. proscribe members from conducting executions, and activist groups are pressuring the American Pharmacists Assn. to adopt a similar ethics policy. Those policies’ influence, though, is limited: State-level laws shield most doctors from sanctions.

Earlier coverage from Missouri and Tennessee at the links.

Wyoming Legislators Look at Firing Squad as Alternative

"Wyoming lawmakers mull firing squad for executions," is the AP report, via the Washington Post.  It's also available from CBS News.

Prompted by the shortages of available drugs for lethal injections, Wyoming lawmakers are considering changing state law to permit the execution of condemned inmates by firing squad.

A Wyoming legislative committee has directed its staff to draft a firing-squad bill for consideration ahead of next year's legislative session starting in January.

Lawmakers in Utah also may consider a return to firing squads for civilian executions. A Republican state lawmaker there recently announced that he intends to introduce firing-squad legislation in his state's next legislative session in January as well.

Utah outlawed execution by firing squad in 2004 but kept it as an option for inmates convicted before that time. It last executed an inmate by firing squad in 2010.

Bob Lampert, director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections, told members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Interim Judiciary Committee last week in Rawlins that drugs for lethal injection have become increasingly difficult to obtain.

“In the event that we had an execution scheduled and we couldn’t carry it out as a result of lack of substances, I suggested to the Joint Judiciary that we may want to consider having an alternate means of execution, such as the firing squad,” Lampert said Wednesday.

Current state law specifies Wyoming would execute condemned inmates in a gas chamber, which the state doesn’t currently have, as a backup to lethal injection only if lethal injection were found to be unconstitutional. Existing state law doesn’t address how the state should proceed in response to a drug shortage.

The ABA Journal posts, "Bill to allow firing-squad executions is being drafted in state with just one death-row inmate," by Debra Cassens Weiss.

Currently the state has no execution drugs, corrections director Bob Lampert said.

And:

Lawmakers in Utah and Wyoming had floated the idea of firing squads earlier this year, but those efforts had stalled. Now the states are reconsidering the proposal after the botched lethal-injection execution in Oklahoma, AP says.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link. Related posts are in the firing squad category index.

Dallas Morning News Chats with Robert Blecker

"Q&A: Death penalty proponent Robert Blecker," is the Sunday ViewPoints feature in the Dallas Morning News.  The interview is conducted by editorial board member Rodger Jones.

Our Q&A is with New York Law School professor Robert Blecker, death penalty proponent and author. Based on thousands of hours inside maximum security prisons and on death rows in several states, his recently published crime-and-punishment memoir The Death of Punishment urges a fresh look at our criminal justice system.

You have heard the arguments from appellate lawyers who are trying to block executions that use untried drugs, based on the objection they might cause pain. What’s your reaction?

This whole controversy obscures deeper disagreements about the death penalty itself. Abolitionists —those who oppose capital punishment — try to clog the system with specious attacks. Clearly we can administer a lethal anesthetic to painlessly kill. Why should the FDA approve the drug? This is not medicine to cure; it’s poison to kill.

Related posts are in the books category index.

An Editorial From Bloomberg News

"Ban the Death Penalty," is the editorial published by Bloomberg News.  It's by David Shipley.

A grisly new consideration may start a necessary debate over capital punishment in the U.S., which is unique among advanced nations in its use of the death penalty. The distinction isn't one to be proud of and should be brought to an end.

Since the 1980s, the use of lethal injection has made executions seem a little more clinical and a little less barbaric. But recently pharmaceutical companies have refused to supply some of the fatal drugs, and some executions have raised doubts that this way of killing is less cruel. Executioners are now preparing to rely on more traditional methods. Firing squads, gas chambers and electric chairs might make Americans queasier about the whole business, and willing to consider the issue afresh.

And:

Let's allow that it would have been right to execute Hitler. But let's also recognize that restricting the death penalty to the few cases where it would be both just and safe is impractical. The best pragmatic course is not to use the death penalty more sparingly but to abolish it outright.

Related posts are in the abolition and editorial category indexes.  You can see proposals to bring back the electric chair, firing squads and the gas chamber at the links.

No Firing Squad in Wyoming

"Wyoming Senate shoots down firing squad bill," is from Associated Press, via the Billings Gazette.

The Wyoming Senate has voted not to consider a bill to allow the use of firing squads to execute condemned inmates.

Sen. Bruce Burns, a Sheridan Republican, sponsored the bill.

And:

The bill would have required approval by two-thirds of senators for introduction. It failed Tuesday on a vote of 17 in favor, 13 opposed.

The article notes that the state has only one inmate on death row.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.

States Revisiting Execution Methods

"Death Penalty States Consider Reviving Firing Squads, Electrocutions, Gas Chambers," is by Jim Salter of Associated Press, via HuffPost.

With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past: firing squads, electrocutions and gas chambers.

Most states abandoned those execution methods more than a generation ago in a bid to make capital punishment more palatable to the public and to a judicial system worried about inflicting cruel and unusual punishments that violate the Constitution.

But to some elected officials, the drug shortages and recent legal challenges are beginning to make lethal injection seem too vulnerable to complications.

Earlier coverage of legislative proposals to authorize executions by firing squad is at the link.

Missouri & the Means of Execution

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Legislators want answers on Missouri's death penalty," by Jeremy Kohler.

As Missouri prepares for its third execution in three months, state legislators are taking an interest in claims that the Department of Corrections used an unlicensed pharmacy to make its lethal injection drugs and executed a prisoner before his appeals ran out.

The issue is so pressing that a state legislative committee scheduled a hearing on executions for today, but canceled the hearing late Monday after learning that the director of the department would not appear.

Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, chairman of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability, said last week that the charges were serious enough that “somebody ought to be asking questions in an official capacity at a public hearing.”

On Monday, Barnes said: “It’s disappointing the director would not testify at this time.”

He said Lombardi’s promise to testify at a later date was sufficient and said “that’s how this committee works.”

And:

Two recent executions have fueled death penalty opponents’ arguments that lethal injections carry the risk of being cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th Amendment.

In Oklahoma on Jan. 9, Michael Lee Wilson cried out “I feel my whole body burning” as he was given an injection that included pentobarbital. And in Ohio on Jan. 16, Dennis McGuire appeared to struggle and gasp as he was put to death by an untested mix of drugs that did not include pentobarbital.

“We are seeing renewed controversy,” said Deborah W. Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School and a death penalty expert. “States are running out of options. They could try new drugs, but every time they do that, they run into problems.”

"Missouri House panel cancels hearing on execution protocols because of director's absence," is AP coverage, via the Tribune.

Committee Chairman Jay Barnes says he called off Tuesday's hearing after learning that Department of Corrections Director George Lombardi was not going to attend it.

It wasn't immediately clear why Lombardi wasn't going to be there.

Barnes says he didn't want a one-sided hearing and hopes to reschedule at a later date.

The House Government Oversight and Accountability Committee was to look into concerns that the department is obtaining its execution drug from a compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma that's not licensed in Missouri.

Barnes says he also wants to examine how the department determines that all legal appeals are exhausted before carrying out executions.

"Shortage of Execution Drugs Puts Focus on Firing Squads," is by CBS News, via OzarksFirst.

The debate over lethal injections was reignited on Thursday when an inmate gasped and convulsed violently during his execution in Ohio as the state used a two-drug method for the first time in the United States.

Rick Brattin said Friday the controversy over lethal injections forces families of murder victims to wait too long for justice so he introduced his bill Thursday to add "firing squad" as an execution option.

"A lot of folks may picture the 1850s and everyone lining up to shoot, but the reality is that people suffer with every type of death," said Brattin, a Republican. "This is no less humane than lethal injection."

Missouri, which is scheduled to execute an inmate in late January, uses lethal injection by statute and permits execution by gas, a method it has not used since 1965.

The United States has executed more than 1,300 prisoners since it resumed the death penalty in the 1970s, nearly 1,200 by lethal injection. Only Utah has used firing squads, executing three inmates that way since 1977, the last in 2010.

Brattin's bill follows a measure Republican Wyoming state Senator Bruce Burns introduced earlier this month to add firing squad as an execution option for the state if drugs are not available.

 On Sunday, the Kansas City Star published the editorial, "States must rethink capital punishment."

Kansas is holding hearings on a bill to repeal its death penalty law. Missouri should do the same.

Unfortunately, two Missouri lawmakers have filed a bill authorizing prisoners to be executed by a firing squad. That is a reprehensible suggestion that should not receive so much as a committee hearing.

States should not become executioners. Life in prison without parole protects society without making citizens complicit in a wrong.

Kansas City Star columnist Yael T. Abouhalkah writes, "Ready, aim, fire: Missouri’s execution squad plan deserves a shot."

True, no other state routinely uses firing squads. Very few people have been executed that way in the history of the country.

Yet Missouri still has the barbaric death penalty in place. It uses lethal drugs — now obtained in questionable, possibly illegal ways — to execute people.

It once used a gas chamber to murder these criminals.

What, in the end, is so much more barbaric about using a firing squad to kill them?

And:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Democrats are trotting out an idea to study how the state carries out the death penalty, given the recent controversy over the use of lethal drugs.

Correctly, some of them want to get rid of Missouri’s death penalty.

"Missouri Death-Row Inmate: State Improperly Stored Drug," is an AP report filed by Alan Scher Zagier, via Pharmaceutical Processing.  It's also available from the Houston Chronicle.

Missouri's prison system is improperly storing expired doses of a new lethal injection drug provided by an Oklahoma pharmacy not licensed to do business in Missouri, attorneys for a death row inmate facing execution this month said in a complaint filed Friday.

Attorneys for Herbert Smulls have asked the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy to recall an "expired, unsafe" batch of the sedative pentobarbital provided to Missouri by an unidentified Oklahoma compounding pharmacy. The complaint says the pharmacy gave erroneous instructions to store the drug at room temperature, a violation of accepted pharmaceutical standards.

Defense attorney Cheryl Pilate said David Dormire, a top Missouri Department of Corrections official who oversees its 21 prisons, testified in a Wednesday deposition that he is keeping the compounded pentobarbital in his office until Smull's scheduled Jan. 29 execution. Industry standards say such drugs should only be used within 24 to 48 hours when kept at room temperature, Pilate said. Smulls was convicted of killing a St. Louis County jeweler in 1991.

"They are dangerously indifferent to widely recognized and accepted standards for the proper storage of compounded drugs," Pilate said.

Department director George Lombardi and a spokesman for the Missouri Department Corrections did not immediately respond to interview requests. Calls to the Oklahoma regulatory agency were directed to a compliance officer who is out of the office until next week.

"Missouri bill would allow execution using firing squad," is by Alex Stuckey in the Saturday edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Currently, the state puts inmates to death through injection of a lethal drug, although the current law also allows for gas — the method by which 39 people were executed from 1938 to 1965.

The House bill adds the option of firing squad executions consisting of five law enforcement officers chosen by the state corrections director.

And:

A lawmaker in Wyoming also is pushing for firing-squad executions in case constitutional problems or other issues ever prevent the state from using execution by injection.

"State Considers Execution By Firing Squad," by Chris Gentilviso at Huffington Post.

One day after a controversial lethal injection case in Ohio put the death penalty in crosshairs, another set of state lawmakers have proposed legislation that would allow execution by firing squad.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Friday that Missouri's HB 1470 puts that option on the table. State Rep. Paul Fitzwater (R-Potosi) told the paper that he cosponsored the legislation with the victims in mind.

“People look at inmates who will be executed as victims,” Fitzwater said. “But the real victims have no voice because they are gone.”

You can find more on House Bill 1470 at the link.

Earlier coverage from Missouri and the Wyoming firing squad proposal, at the links.  You can also jump to Ohio coverage.

Wyoming Roundup

Today's Casper Star-Tribune reports, "Batch of death penalty cases drains Wyoming Public Defender's Office budget," by Joan Barron.  For those following indigent criminal justice issues, it's filled with details.

A rash of actual and potential death penalty cases left the Wyoming Public Defender's Office pinched for money last year, the agency's director said Wednesday.

The office spent $665,000 on seven potential cases between July 1, 2012 and Oct. 31, 2013 compared to only one capital case in the past two budget cycles, Diane Lozano said during a budget hearing before the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee.

The agency handled homicide and potential death penalty cases in Park County (three), Fremont County (two), Platte County (one) and Laramie County (one).

All but one of the homicide cases were resolved by the defendants pleading guilty and receiving sentences of life in prison.

And:

The ACLU has sued Montana and a couple of other states for not providing enough money for adequate representation for indigent criminal defendants.

Also from Wyoming, there is additional news of legislation to authorize firing squads as a form of execution.  "Burns: Firing squad as an alternative form of execution practical," is by Hannah Wiest in the Sheridan Press.

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, has filed a bill for consideration by the 2014 Wyoming Legislature regarding the death penalty that has turned more than a few heads across the nation.

The bill would amend state statute to make death by firing squad Wyoming’s alternative form of execution rather than gas chamber. The primary form of execution in Wyoming — along with 35 other states, the U.S. military and the U.S. government — is lethal injection.

Burns said he was surprised by the overall negative reaction to his bill.

“Wyoming’s more the rule than the exception when it comes to the death penalty,” Burns said. “I brought the bill for practical purposes. Having the gas chamber as a back-up option in Wyoming is equivalent to stating that the back-up is being dropped from great height from a Zeppelin.”

Wyoming doesn’t have a gas chamber to use for executions, and Burns felt it would be economically impractical to pursue building one since it would likely be used very little — if ever. Burns also said he felt gas chambers are cruel and unusual punishment.

“In my opinion, it’s a very gruesome form of execution, the idea that you’re basically being suffocated to death,” Burns said. “For me personally I’d rather have a firing squad. I’d take a firing squad even over the needle.”

And:

Wyoming currently has one inmate on death row. Dale Wayne Eaton was convicted in 2004 of the rape and killing of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, who was from Billings, Mont.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.

Firing Squads in Wyoming?

"Wyo. lawmaker proposes firing squads for executions," is by Ben Neary of Associated Press, via CBS News.  It's also available from the Arizona Republic.

A Wyoming lawmaker is pushing to allow use of firing squads to execute condemned state inmates if constitutional problems or other issues ever prevented the state from using lethal injections. 

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, said Monday that state law currently calls for using a gas chamber if lethal injection is unavailable. 

"The state of Wyoming doesn't have a gas chamber currently, an operating gas chamber, so the procedure and expense to build one would be impractical to me," said Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

"I consider, frankly, the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual, so I went with firing squad because they also have it in Utah," Burns said. He's introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10 in Cheyenne. 

"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said. "The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows." 

Burns said his bill addressed the possibility that the state could have to find a substitute for using lethal injection because a number of states are running short of the chemicals used for lethal injections.

"Wyoming lawmaker says to bring back the firing squad: It’s ‘cheapest’," is by Cheryl K. Chumley in the Washington Times.

A lawmaker in Wyoming says the state ought to take action now to avoid a constitutional crisis if lethal injection for convicts is ever outlawed and pass a bill to allow for the return of firing squads.

Besides, the lawmaker said, firing squads are economically sensible.

And:

“One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly, it’s one of the cheapest for the state,” said Mr. Burns, in the report. “The expense of building a gas chamber, I think, would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows.”

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.  The last U.S. execution by firing squad was in Utah in 2010.

Richard Dieter on the Utah Execution

"Firing squad execution underscores inhumanity of death penalty," is the title of Richard Dieter's commentary at Jurist.  He's the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Gardner got the kind of execution he wanted--death by firing squad--and Utah finally got what it wanted--retribution for the murder Gardner had committed twenty-five years ago. We the people (and in this case, there was a worldwide audience) probably scratched our heads wondering what that was all about.

And:

But while the firing squad is clearly on the way out, executions by lethal injection continue under a cloak of antiseptic obscurity. The death penalty is winding down, as overwhelming evidence in this country and around the world demonstrates. Death sentences, executions, and the number of states with the death penalty have dropped sharply in the past decade. The U.S. is now one of a very small number of countries to carry out executions annually. The strong stream of progress in human rights implies that capital punishment itself will eventually be relegated to the same history as slavery, apartheid, and torture. Even as vestiges of these practices remain, they are clearly condemned in the world community. We continue to execute people in this country not because such actions are necessary but because we have not yet figured out how to extricate ourselves from this practice. In the meantime, people like Ronnie Gardner are chosen from among thousands on death row and killed because their number has come up. Occasionally they "go out in a blaze of glory," but as retiring Justice John Paul Stevens recently concluded, it is the pointless and needless extinction of life."

More commentary on the Gardner execution begins with this post.

More Commentary Following Gardner Execution

Mary Sanchez' latest Kansas City Star column is, "Prohibitive cost is a bottom-line argument against the death penalty."

Keep reading if Utah’s firing squad execution last week stirred a sense of “he got what he deserved.”

Consider more details and you might be less appreciative for what state-sanctioned vigilante justice gives back to the taxpayer. And it doesn’t matter if the deed is done by a five-man firing squad like the one that killed Utah’s Ronnie Lee Gardner, or lethal injection.

If the nation’s budget crisis is a concern, that is. If news of more cuts to services like highway repairs irks you. If you are troubled by teachers being laid off because states are fiscally strapped, or police officers not being hired, or trash collectors.

The death penalty is a colossal waste of money in the 35 states that have it, including Missouri and Kansas. Adding to the insult, it is ineffective as a crime deterrent.

A state can pay $1 million more to pursue a capital case compared with pursuing any other sentence, according to a 2009 report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

But because only one death sentence is reached for every three sought, the extra expense is even more questionable.

So what does seeking the death penalty accomplish? Why, revenge, of course. The death penalty satisfies the eye-for-an-eye attitude that can’t be soothed by merely seeking the far less costly sentence of life in prison with no parole.

I oppose the death penalty because murder is wrong. It doesn’t matter if it is done by a criminal, or the state. But increasingly even people who don’t philosophically oppose it, like many in law enforcement, are chiming in too. They’re arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere if the goal is reducing crime.

And:

Given all the information on capital punishment’s costs and ineffectiveness as a crime deterrent, revenge is the only reason people remain beholden to the death penalty.

Yet revenge is the least informed, most emotionally reactive rationale of all. And in these times of budget constraints, it’s an even shallower response than ever.

Timothy Egan posts, "The Last Firing Squad," at the New York Times Opinionator blog.  It's a must-read essay.

Around midnight last Friday the shoeless prisoner was roused from a nap and strapped into a chair. The guards put a patch over his heart, the firing squad’s target from 25 feet. Any last words?

“I do not. No.”

With that, a black hood was placed over the bald head of the condemned man, and the countdown began: five, four, three, two, one. Each of the five gunmen squeezed off a shot from a .30 caliber rifle, though one was firing a blank. At once, four bullets entered the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner. His fist clenched. The fist opened. A few minutes later, his pulse was checked. The deed was done: the state of Utah had killed the killer.

And:

Ronnie Lee Gardner was no martyr, no wronged man. His life was trouble and pain from the beginning. Drug and alcohol abuse. Random violence. Robberies, and two murders of people who had the misfortune to get in his way.

“He believes he needs to pay for what he’s done,” the killer’s daughter, Brandie Gardner, told reporters before the execution. “But at the same time, people should know that what they’re doing is murder.”

That’s really the heart of this debate, and always has been: is it murder for society to take a life? But the firing squad raises another issue, one the witnesses of the execution last Friday are trying to grapple with: since this is state-sanctioned killing, shouldn’t we all be required to participate in some small way, like voting? When a democracy takes a life, it should be there for all to see — transparency, that favorite good government word.

More post-execution commentary is here.

More Editorial Reflection on the Gardner Execution

Today's Des Moines Register carries the editorial, "Executing criminals always a barbaric act."

About 50 people were executed for crimes in the United States in 2009 - an average of one a week. National media pay little attention to most of them. But everyone was paying attention to convicted killer Ronnie Lee Garner last week. Journalists around the country clamored to cover the Utah man's death.

That attention was for one reason: The state executed him using .30 caliber rifles. Gardner requested this method of death before Utah outlawed it. This was no "run of the mill" lethal injection execution. Gardner was strapped to a metal chair and wore a black target on his chest. The shots from the guns killed him quickly, according to witnesses.

t's the kind of story that piques the country's interest.

But it shouldn't. Not more than any other execution the government carries out in this country.

A firing squad should be no more fascinating - or acceptable - than any other form of execution.

Because no matter how it's done, there is simply no "humane" or "interesting" way to execute a person. There is no way for a civilized country to justify killing its own people. Locking up murderers for life punishes the criminals while protecting society.

And:

"Eye for an eye" punishments are barbaric. Juries don't order rapists to be raped or those guilty of assault to be beaten. A civilized country is supposed to rise above the level of criminals.

There are signs a growing number of Americans view the death penalty as wrong. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed it for the mentally retarded and teenagers. The number of death sentences per year has dropped in the past 10 years. Over the years, tolerance for subjecting criminals to gruesome, painful executions has diminished. Gone are the days of public hangings. It's easier to stomach the idea of putting someone "to sleep" with lethal doses of drugs.But there should be no tolerance for a civilized country putting anyone to death - using any method.

"Killing the condemned," is the editorial of the Daily Freeman in upstate New York.

Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was sent to his maker Friday by a volley of four bullets from a firing squad, the consequence of his 1985 courthouse murder of lawyer Michael J. Burdell. Gardner had taken a court appearance on a charge of a previous murder as an opportunity to attempt to escape.

Whether you support or oppose capital punishment — and, for the record, we do oppose it — it’s hard to make an argument that Gardner got a raw deal. The world is a better place without him.

Some, however, have questioned the means of execution.

If the people of a state decide to make capital punishment part of their justice system, they do have an obligation to see the means is humane, as required by the Constitution.

Although it may surprise, there had been no objective evidence that the firing squad has been anything but efficient. Condemned prisoners targeted at the heart at close range by multiple marksmen with rifles die quickly.

And:

Simply put, we are limited in our options because, while we want to kill the condemned, we want to kill them softly, in a manner appropriate to the cold blood of judicial sanction, and in way that, as much as possible, keeps the blood of the executed splashing onto our hands.

Perhaps the problem is that that simply cannot be done.

Earlier commentary on the execution begins here.

Commentary on the Gardner Execution

David Dow posted, "Last Night's Gruesome Execution," at Daily Beast on Friday morning, hours after the execution.

I don’t know what Ronnie Lee Gardner ordered for a final meal, or if he ate at all. I’m not interested. But I’m interested that people are interested. I think it has something to do with voyeurism. The ritual of the death penalty makes us into voyeurs. If Gardner had been sentenced to life in prison rather than death, no one outside his family and fellow inmates would know his name, or care. But if you search Gardner’s name on Google, you’ll get nearly a million hits.

And:

Gardner reached his final hours with far less alacrity than the Utah firing squad’s most famous casualty. When Gary Gilmore was dispatched on January 17, 1977, his crime was not yet six months past. (That’s a modern record.) As a result, the emotions prompted by the crime spree Gilmore committed on July 19 and 20, 1976, were still festering and raw. People still hated the guy. The death penalty is wrong, but in Gilmore’s case at least it made sense. By contrast, Gardner’s case crawled to its conclusion. When Gardner murdered Otterstrom more than a quarter century ago, Otterstrom’s son Jason was 3.

Last November, I had a client who was put to death for killing a man who left behind two sons. Twelve years after the murder, they witnessed the execution. When it was over, one of them said, “Justice was served. I feel a lot better. We can move on.”

According to the Salt Lake City Deseret News, Jason Otterstrom, now engaged to be married, is pursuing his Ph.D. News reports say he opposed a commutation of Gardner’s sentence.

I sometimes think about whether my client’s victim’s son really has moved on, or whether one can. But that’s what rituals are for, after all: to help human beings turn the page.

"Lethal injection, firing squad raise ethical questions," is the title of a column by Larry Petrash in the Wichita Falls Times Record News.  He's a member of the editorial board.

Ronnie Lee Gardner, by his choice, was executed by firing squad at 12:05 a.m. Friday in the Utah State Prison. Over the past several years, Texas has carried out more than its fair share of lethal injection executions. When each execution takes place, the question resurfaces: Why do we kill people, who kill people, to show that killing people is wrong?

I favor the death penalty for heinous, i.e., shockingly abominable, crimes. I have no problem taking detestable, worthless scum out of our society, like John Couey in Florida, who murdered 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford by burying her alive. That’s a heinous crime!

But I also have several problems with the death penalty. It violates this nation’s Christian ethic; it’s not uniformly applied across the country; it’s more likely that minorities receive it; it’s more costly than locking convicts up and throwing away the key, and there are way too many proven DNA exonerations. It’s a proven fact juries get it wrong and they put innocent people to death. That’s another heinous crime!

Gardner was convicted of two murders, one of which occurred during a courthouse escape attempt in 1985. Is this heinous enough?

Earlier coverage of the Gardner execution begins here.

The Utah Execution

The New York Times reports, "Utah Executes Murderer by Firing Squad," by Kirk Johnson.

A five-member firing squad at the Utah State Prison took aim and fired .30-caliber bullets at a target pinned on the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer, just after midnight on Friday. He was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m. Mountain Time, after almost 25 years on death row, and several months as the center of international attention focused not so much on crime as his punishment.

It was the third firing squad execution in Utah — the only state actively practicing that form of punishment — since 1976, when the death penalty was restored by the United States Supreme Court.

The latest AP filing is, "Firing squad execution sobering, but dramatic," written by Jennifer Dobner.

The explosive reports sent a volley of .30-caliber bullets from the five marksmen into the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner.

I was expecting to flinch but didn't as I watched his execution from the witness room.

It was so quick that for a split-second I wondered if it had actually happened.

There was no blood splattered across the white cinderblock wall at the Utah State Prison. No audible sounds from the condemned. I couldn't see his eyes. I never saw the guns and didn't hear the countdown to the trigger-pull.

A twice-convicted killer who had a troubled upbringing, the 49-year-old Gardner was executed by firing squad shortly after midnight on Friday. I was one of nine journalists selected to observe his death, which the state classifies as a homicide.

When the prison warden pulled back the beige curtain, Gardner was already strapped into a black, straight-backed metal chair. His head secured by a strap across his forehead. Harness-like straps constrained his chest. His handcuffed arms hung at his sides. A white cloth square — maybe 3 inches across — affixed to his chest over his heart bore a black target.

Seconds before the impact of the bullets, Gardner's left thumb twitched against his forefinger. When his chest was pierced, he clenched his fist. His arm pulled up slowly as if he were lifting something and then released. The motion repeated.

Although the dark blue prison jumpsuit made it difficult to see, blood seemed to be pooling around Gardner's waist.

The silence was deafening.

"With two loud bangs, a killer's life is taken," is the account by a team of  Salt Lake Tribune reporters.

The prison warden draped the black hood over Gardner's head. A small target was affixed by Velcro over his left breast.

The five executioners readied their weapons, only four of which were loaded with live ammunition.

At 12:15 a.m., the shots rang out.

"It was so sudden, so quick -- boom boom -- just like that," television news reporter Marcos Ortiz said.

Several of the witnesses described watching as Gardner's hand and arm continued to move after he was shot.

"He clenched his fist and then let go," Fabrizio said. "And then he clenched it again."

Two minutes after the shots, the medical examiner lifted Gardner's hood to reveal his ashen face, mouth agape.

The killer was dead.

The Deseret News has a number of articles at this LINK.  The primary article is, "Gardner's life ends with hardly a word.

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 Utah, and the U.S., 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 bullseye 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. 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," said KUER/KUED witness Doug Fabrizio.

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.

Earlier coverage begins here.