Jan 17, 1977: Gary Gilmore executed by firing squad
Gary Gilmore
Precisely thirty years ago, Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer, was executed by firing squad in the Utah state prison in Salt Lake City. His was first execution to have been carried out in the United States for almost 10 years.
Two aspects of this story make it exceptional. Firstly, the death penalty had been controversially reinstated in the United States in 1976 and Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed under the new law.
Secondly, Gilmore fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly. Gilmore had already spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail.
Gilmore, age 36, was sentenced to death for the murder of a motel manager in Provo, Utah on 20 July 1976. He was also charged with killing a service station attendant in Crem, Utah, the previous day, but that case never went to trial.
An appeals court in Denver overturned a restraining order on the execution in the early hours of this morning.
In his closing words, one of the judges emphasised that Mr Gilmore should take responsibility for insisting that his own execution go ahead."Let's do it"
-- Gary Gilmore just before being executed
Within an hour of the ruling Gary Gilmore was dead. The execution took place in a converted prison cannery in front of around 20 witnesses at 0806 local time."Among other people who have rights, Mr Gilmore has his own. If an error is being made and the execution goes forward, he brought that on himself," -- Judge Lewis, 10CA.
After the legal order had been read, Gilmore's last words were: "Let's do it."
A hood was placed over his head, a target attached to his t-shirt, and the five-man firing squad took aim and shot their .30-06 rounds from behind a screen. So that none of his executioners could be sure they had fired a mortal round, one of the rifles was loaded with a blank.
Backstop used in Utah. The condemned was strapped to it in a sitting position to avoid flinching, thus ensuring a clean kill.
Laverne Damico, Gilmore's uncle and witness at the scene, said his nephew "died like he wanted to die, with dignity. He got his wish."
Gilmore's body was taken to the University of Utah Medical Center where his organs were used for medical research. Two people received Gilmore's corneas within hours of his death - which inspired punk band the Adverts' Top 20 hit "Gary Gilmore's Eyes".
On December 2, 2005, Kenneth Boyd, a convicted killer, became the 1000th person to be executed in the US since the death penalty was reintroduced.
Postscript:
As many of you may know, your correspondent is a pretty conservative guy, but he does not approve of capital punishment, mostly because Mr Gilmore notwithstanding, the overwhelming majority of death row inmates are poor, black or brown -- which to me at least, begs the question, is the death penalty generally applied only to folks who can't afford the sort of defense necessary to avoid the needle?
If that is so, I have a problem with that on the basis of our constitutional guarentee of equal protection under the law. Put another way, criminal justice is supposed to be the same for rich and poor. Until we sort out that apparent inconsistency as a people, IMHO, we should be very sparing with executions.
With regard to really nasty criminals who "don't deserve to live," (people convicted of particularly heinous crimes,) I personally believe life in prison is worse than death. There is compelling evidence that many death row inmates feel the same way. Think of how hard Gilmore worked to ensure he didn't rot in prison. OKC bomber McVey too. If you favor making these monsters miserable, which appeals to me too, then I humbly submit that "life" is worse than death.
Also significantly, "Life" punishes, while keeping the convict alive, just in case we found out years later he didn't do it -- which too often happens.
See: http://www.innocenceproject.org
The below numbers indicate use of the punishment is on the decline nationally.
Originally Posted by Jerk
