Ronnie Lee Gardner
Photo by the Utah Department of Corrections
Born	(1961-01-16)January 16, 1961 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA[1]
Died	June 18, 2010(2010-06-18) (aged 49) Draper, Utah, USA[3]
Citizenship	American
Criminal status	Executed on June 18, 2010[4]
Spouse	Debra Bischoff[1]
Children	2[6]
Parent(s)	Dan Gardner Ruth Gardner Lucas[5]
Conviction(s)	Robbery — February 1980[1] Burglary, escape — 1981[2] Murder — June 1985 Capital murder — October 22, 1985[1]
Criminal penalty	Life in prison without parole Execution by firing squad

Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American who was executed by firing squad by the state of Utah. He was convicted of burglary, robbery, attempted escape, and two counts of murder. In October 1984, Gardner killed Melvyn John Otterstrom during a robbery in Salt Lake City. In April 1985, Gardner fatally shot attorney Michael Burdell during a botched attempt to escape from a court proceeding for the first murder. Gardner was sentenced to life imprisonment for the first count of murder and received the death penalty for the second count.^[1][2] The state adopted new security measures as a result of the courthouse shooting.^[7]

In a series of appeals, defense attorneys pointed out the troubled upbringing of Gardner, who had spent nearly his entire adult life in incarceration. A state law regarding prison inmate assault was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court during the process.^[1] Gardner's defense took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to intervene.^[8] The Utah House of Representatives later introduced legislation to limit appeals after Gardner's case spent nearly 25 years in the court system.^[9]

The execution of Gardner at Utah State Prison became the focus of media attention in June 2010 for being the first to be carried out by firing squad in the United States in 14 years.^[4] Gardner stated that he sought this method of execution because of his Mormon background.^[10] On the day before his execution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement clarifying its position on the issue of blood atonement of individuals.^[11] Gardner's execution by five volunteer marksmen was not witnessed by his family at his request.^[12] The case attracted debate over capital punishment and whether Gardner had been destined for a life of violence since his difficult childhood.^[13]

Life

Ronnie Lee Gardner was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and was the youngest of Dan and Ruth Gardner's seven children. Dan was a heavy drinker who left the household to start another family while Ronnie was a toddler; Dan and Ruth divorced when Ronnie was 18 months old. Six months later, Ronnie was found malnourished and wandering the streets alone in a diaper. Child welfare workers filed a "failure to care" petition and took him into custody, but later returned him to his mother. Ronnie Lee Gardner's relationship with his father was tumultuous; Dan did not believe he was Gardner's biological father and frequently told his son of his belief. According to Gardner, he was raised by an older sister, and was sexually abused by his siblings.^[1][5] Sometimes he and his sister Bonnie would run away and seek refuge in a "hobo camp." By the age of 10, Gardner was addicted to drugs and permitted access to alcohol. He and his brother Randy were arrested for stealing cowboy boots and taken into juvenile detention. Gardner recalled with distress that his father Dan came to take his brother Randy home and left him behind.^[5]

Early institutionalization

Gardner's mother married Bill Lucas, who had been incarcerated in Wyoming in 1968.^[5] The Gardner-Lucas family eventually had nine children. Gardner admired Lucas, who used his stepsons as lookouts while burglarizing homes. By his early teens, Gardner had been held in detention at a series of institutions, including an involuntary commitment at Utah State Hospital in Provo.^[1] Gardner was small as a boy, and described that he had to fight to defend himself and earn respect. In Gardner's own words, "I was a nasty little bugger."^[5]

While held at Utah State Industrial School in Ogden, Gardner was visited by Jack Statt, a man who was living with his brother Randy.^[5] According to Gardner, Statt met Randy at a bus stop and paid him $25 for oral sex.^[1] When released from the school in 1975, Gardner stayed with Statt. Although social workers noted that the men in the household were dressed like women, Statt officially became a foster parent to Gardner and his brother. Gardner stated that Statt performed sex acts on them and explained, "I thought life like that was normal."^[5] Gardner told psychologists that he worked as a prostitute while living with Statt, who was profiled by the psychologists as a pedophile. Gardner said his time in foster care was the most stable period of his life, stating, "Jack was a good man, and he tried to help us out."^[1]

While Gardner intermittently continued to go to the industrial school,^[5] he met Debra Bischoff at a Salt Lake City apartment complex where his mother lived. Bischoff described him as: "Very caring. He never put me in the rough situations he was in throughout his life. He sheltered me from that stuff." Gardner had a daughter in May 1977 and a son in February 1980 with Bischoff, but was convicted of robbery and sent to Utah State Prison in the same month his son was born.^[1][6] Gardner successfully escaped the prison's maximum security unit on April 19, 1981, and was shot in the neck while attempting to kill a man that he believed had raped Bischoff.^[5] In February 1983, he was identified as a ringleader in a disturbance in which inmates barricaded a cell block where they started fires.^[2]

On August 6, 1984, Gardner escaped from custody at the University of Utah Hospital after he faked an illness by vomiting. He attacked transportation officer Don Leavitt and forced him to unlock his shackles by telling him: "I guess you know if that doctor comes back, I'll have to kill you both."^[2][5] In the course of the escape, Gardner struck Leavitt so hard that he needed wires to reconstruct his face.^[1] Gardner forced a medical student named Mike Lynch to take him from the premises on a motorcycle while pointing a gun into his back.^[5] On August 11, a letter carrier found Leavitt's firearm in a mailbox with a note from Gardner that said, "Here’s the gun and wallet taken from the guard at the hospital. I don’t want to hurt no one else. I just want to be free."^[1]

Murders

During the night of October 9, 1984, Gardner attempted to rob the Cheers Tavern in Salt Lake City. While high on cocaine, he shot bartender Melvyn John Otterstrom in the nose, killing him.^[1][14] Otterstrom's cousin Craig Watson stated that the robbery "gained less than $100." Family members said Gardner attended Otterstrom's funeral and pretended to be a childhood friend.^[5] Gardner was apprehended in November 1984 and held in lieu of $1.5 million bail.^[15] Gardner's getaway driver was identified as Darcy Perry McCoy, who testified against him in court.^[16]

During trial proceedings for the Otterstrom murder on April 2, 1985, Gardner attempted an escape from custody with a revolver that had been smuggled into the Metropolitan Hall of Justice at Salt Lake City.^[16] Jim Kleine of the Salt Lake City Fire Department believed that the gun was passed to Gardner as he was being escorted into the courthouse from the underground parking lot.^[2] Gardner wounded unarmed bailiff George "Nick" Kirk in the abdomen.^[17] After running to the courtroom archives, Gardner confronted attorneys Robert Macri and Michael Burdell. According to Macri, Gardner initially pointed the gun at him and changed aim to Burdell,^[18] who had been doing pro bono work for his church. Burdell yelled, "Oh, my God," when Gardner shot him in the eye. Gardner was shot in the chest by guard Luther Hensley, but still made his way outside the building. When he was surrounded by dozens of police officers, he threw the gun away, dropped and yelled: "Don’t shoot, I don’t have a gun."^[1]

Gardner was taken to the University of Utah Health Services Center where he was listed in serious condition, but survived. Burdell died about 45 minutes later while in surgery at Holy Cross Hospital.^[2][15] Kirk survived surgery and was listed in critical condition at LDS Hospital. During a search of the courthouse, a bag of men's clothing was found in the basement under a women's restroom sink.^[17] Prosecutor Bob Stott believed Gardner's gun had been taped to a water fountain on the first floor.^[7] Darcy Perry McCoy was found unarmed and was arrested about a mile away.^[19] Her sister, Carma Jolley Hainsworth, was sentenced to eight years in prison for delivering the clothes and messages in preparation for the escape attempt,^[20] but the identity of the person who provided Gardner the firearm was not known at the time.^[16] State corrections director William Vickrey cleared the actions of the prison guards who escorted Gardner,^[21] but Salt Lake County Sheriff N.D. "Pete" Hayward said that the guard who shot Gardner should have kept shooting until Gardner was dead.^[22] A review found that the guards were inhibited from shooting because Gardner used a hostage as a human shield.^[23] Sheriff Hayward said the escape attempt "appeared to be well-planned" and blamed the security breach on the layout of the Metropolitan Hall of Justice, which allowed the public uninhibited access to areas where prisoners were transported.^[7][17][24]

Sentencing and incarceration

In June 1985, Gardner pled guilty to the murder of Otterstrom and received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.^[1] At one point, Gardner threatened to disrupt subsequent court hearings because he was upset over being required to wear a leg brace that would lock if he attempted to escape again. He was advised by guards that it would be to his benefit to behave in front of prospective jurors.^[25] District judge Jay E. Banks instructed the jury on October 22, 1985, that they had the option of a verdict for the lesser offense of manslaughter if they found Gardner to be under mental or emotional duress when he shot Burdell.^[26] The jurors deliberated less than three hours and found Gardner guilty of capital murder.^[18] Ultimately sentenced to death, Gardner selected execution by firing squad over lethal injection.^[1] Utah eliminated the firing squad as a method of execution in 2004, but convicts who were sentenced before that date, such as Gardner, could still select that option.^[4] Since 1976, only two other people have been executed by firing squad in the United States, both in Utah: Gary Gilmore and John Albert Taylor.^[8] In contrast to Taylor, who said he chose the firing squad to embarrass the state,^[27] Gardner's attorney said that his client did not want to attract attention and simply preferred to die this way.^[3]

I'd prefer to die of old age, your honor, but if that ain't possible, I'll take the firing squad.

— Ronnie Lee Gardner, 1985^[28]

Gardner's incarceration as Utah's then-youngest inmate on death row was not uneventful.^[29] A hearing was held on February 19, 1987, in which Gardner and other inmates claimed "unconsitutional confinement" in unsanitary conditions with poor food.^[30] On October 28, 1987, Gardner broke a glass partition in a prison visiting area and had sex with a female visitor while other inmates cheered and barricaded the doors.^[1] According to state prison spokesperson Juan Benavidez, though Gardner had "knocked out the lights," an officer who was in the control room "could still see what was going on."^[31] Gardner claimed that it was an accident.^[32][33] In 1993, Utah state representative Dan Tuttle introduced what he called "the Ronnie Lee Gardner bill" in which he proposed that law enforcement officers be permitted to shoot inmates attempting to escape, whether they are "armed or not."^[34]

On September 25, 1994, Gardner got drunk from drinking alcohol, which he fermented in his own prison cell sink, and stabbed inmate Richard "Fats" Thomas with a shiv fashioned from a pair of sunglasses. Thomas suffered nine puncture wounds to his face, mouth, arm and chest that were life-threatening, but made a full recovery. Though Thomas had survived the stabbing, Gardner was charged with another capital crime under a 1974 Utah law reserved for prison attacks by first-degree felony inmates.^[35] There was no precedent in the United States for a death penalty that was carried out for such a crime. The constitutionality of the law, which defense lawyers called "stale and anachronistic,"^[36] was challenged and thrown out by the Utah Supreme Court because the victim did not die.^[1]

In February 1996, Gardner threatened to sue to force the state of Utah to execute him by firing squad. He had told a judge in a 1991 hearing that he was motivated by his children to seek lethal injection, but later changed his mind as they became older. He said that he preferred the firing squad because of his "Mormon heritage." Gardner also felt that lawmakers were trying to eliminate the firing squad, in opposition to popular opinion in Utah, because of concern over the state's image in the upcoming 2002 Winter Olympics.^[10]

I like the firing squad. It's so much easier... and there's no mistakes.

— Ronnie Lee Gardner, 1996^[10]

In 1998, the old Metropolitan Hall of Justice was vacated and replaced by the multimillion-dollar Scott M. Matheson Courthouse. Gardner's 1985 courthouse shooting was blamed on the open access and light security of the previous building and greatly influenced the tighter security measures adopted by Salt Lake City's new courthouse. Former prosecutor Kent Morgan stated, "Absolutely Gardner changed that."^[7] On March 3, 2001, the Metropolitan Hall of Justice was demolished.^[37]

Defense motions

A Supreme Court order showed that Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens would have granted a stay of execution.^[8]

In 2007, U.S. federal judge Tena Campbell rejected Gardner's appeal that his attorneys were inadequate because they were unable to prove that he did not mean to kill his victim. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected motions for appeal by his defense on March 8, 2010.^[38] Gardner attempted to give up the process at least three times, but his attorneys convinced him to continue appealing each time.^[1] State court Judge Robin Reese signed an execution warrant on April 23 ordering the state to carry out the death sentence.^[39]

At Gardner's commutation hearing on June 10, 2010, lawyers and medical experts in his defense argued whether meningitis contracted at the age of 4 had damaged his brain. The defense also mentioned how he huffed gas and glue with his siblings, and played with mercury stolen from gas meters by his stepfather to sell.^[1] Three of the jurors that sentenced Gardner to death signed an affidavit that they would have recommended life without parole, an option that was not available in Utah until 1992.^[15] Gardner claimed that he was a changed man who counseled other inmates and was interested in starting an organic farm project for youths on 160 acres in Box Elder County, Utah.^[40] Gardner's attorney presented a letter his client wrote to Oprah Winfrey requesting funds for the project.^[40] Gardner also argued that it was not justifiable to execute him after so much time had passed since the crime.^[3]

I can do a lot of good. First of all, I'm a good example. There's no better example in this state of what not to do.

— Ronnie Lee Gardner, 2010^[40]

Assistant state attorney general Tom Brunker argued against clemency, stating: "Mr. Gardner was sentenced to death and earned that death penalty because of his unflagging history of violent crime."^[40] The family of the late George "Nick" Kirk recounted how his being shot by Gardner affected their lives and ultimately shortened Kirk's life. Kirk's daughter Barb Webb said, "He's done a lot of horrific things in his past and I think, given the chance, he would do them all again." Jason Otterstrom, whose father Melvyn was murdered by Gardner, struggled to describe the impact upon his family.^[41] After listening to the testimony from the families of the victims, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole declined Gardner's commutation request, stating that the jury's verdict and sentence were "not inappropriate."^[42] The board members cited his violent record during incarceration and questioned his effort to reform as being "too little, too late."^[40] Gardner revealed at the hearing that it was Darcy Perry McCoy who provided him the gun with which he murdered Michael Burdell. Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Bob Stott said that McCoy would not be prosecuted because Gardner, the only witness, was going to be executed.^[20]

I feel really sorry for him; I do feel sorry. But he made that choice.

— Tami Stewart, Daughter of shooting victim George "Nick" Kirk^[42]

The Utah Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings on June 14, 2010, exhausting Gardner's appeals within the state.^[42] The U.S. Supreme Court turned down final appeals on June 17, though a court order indicated that dissenting Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens would have granted a stay of execution. Utah governor Gary Herbert declined to intervene and said that Gardner had "a full and fair opportunity" in court.^[8] State attorney general Mark Shurtleff announced on Twitter that he signed off on the execution: "I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution."^[3]

Death penalty debate

On the night before Gardner's execution, a protest against capital punishment was held at the Utah State Capitol.^[43]

Opponents of capital punishment gathered at the Utah State Capitol to hold a rally during the final appeals. The protest was attended by Gardner's family, and was organized by Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The protest also included the support of Brian King of the Utah House of Representatives, who pledged to urge the legislature to reconsider the use of the capital punishment.^[43] The family of murder victim Michael Burdell had also appealed on Gardner's behalf, stating that Burdell was a pacifist who would have opposed the death penalty.^[44]

News media arrived from around the world and raised the issue of blood atonement because of Gardner's citation of his Mormon roots in selecting the firing squad.^[45][46][47] Some followers of Mormonism are taught that murder is so heinous that the blood of the offender must be spilled to pay for their sins.^[27] On the day before Gardner's execution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the following statement:

In the mid-19th century, when rhetorical, emotional oratory was common, some church members and leaders used strong language that included notions of people making restitution for their sins by giving up their own lives.

However, so-called "blood atonement," by which individuals would be required to shed their own blood to pay for their sins, is not a doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe in and teach the infinite and all-encompassing atonement of Jesus Christ, which makes forgiveness of sin and salvation possible for all people.^[11]

Other denominations voiced their opposition to the use of capital punishment. Reverend David Henry of the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City said, "Violence breeds violence... It doesn’t work. It's ineffective, and it's brutalizing all of us."^[43] Cardinal Keith O'Brien of the Roman Catholic Church later used Gardner's case to describe the "culture of vengeance" in the United States.^[13]

According to polls, support for capital punishment had been steadily declining since the 1990s,^[48] but the majority of people in Utah still supported the death penalty in the period leading up to Gardner's scheduled execution.^[39] In 2010, Kay McIff of the Utah House of Representatives sponsored legislation to require condemned inmates to raise all appeal arguments in their first post-conviction petition, noting that Gardner's multiple appeals kept his case lingering on death row for nearly 25 years.^[9]

Execution

The Utah Department of Corrections provided Gardner's attorney Andrew Parnes with documentation about executions by firing squad and lethal injection. The records included the Utah execution team's training and expertise. Parnes relayed the information to Gardner after agreeing not to disclose it to anyone else.^[38]

On Tuesday June 15, 2010, Gardner ate a last meal of steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7 Up, before beginning a 48-hour fast while watching The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and reading Divine Justice.^[49] According to his lawyers, he had undertaken his fast for "spiritual reasons."^[4] Gardner was visited by a Mormon bishop and his family shortly before his execution.^[46][50] Gardner walked voluntarily to his place of execution.^[12] When asked if he had any last words, he responded, "I do not, no."^[51]

Gardner was executed on June 18, 2010, at 12:15 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time^[49] by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in Draper. He was strapped to a black metal chair with a white target over his heart, a hood over his head, and sandbags placed around him to stop ricochets. The firing squad was made up of five anonymous volunteers who were certified police officers. The officers stood about 25 feet from the target. One of their .30-caliber Winchester rifles was randomly loaded with a non-lethal wax bullet so that they would not know with certainty who fired the fatal shots.^[3] According to the Utah Department of Corrections, the squad used a countdown cadence beginning with five and simultaneously firing right before two.^[12] A media witness observed that Gardner reacted to being shot by clenching and raising his fist. His dark blue jumpsuit made it difficult to see the blood pooling at his waist.^[46] A medical examiner removed Gardner's hood to reveal his ashen face. After verifying Gardner's lack of pulse at the neck and pupillary light reflex, the medical examiner pronounced his death at 12:17 a.m. He was the first person to be executed by firing squad in the United States since the execution of John Albert Taylor fourteen years earlier.^[49] A commemorative coin was commissioned for prison staff who participated in the execution.^[52] Template:Wikinews2

Gardner's friends and family gathered outside the prison to hold a candlelight vigil while playing "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.^[53] Some wore shirts with his prisoner number 14873, but none witnessed the execution per Gardner's request.^[12] His body was cremated and released to his daughter to be taken back to Idaho with family members.^[50]

Ultimately, his children and grandchildren got their chance to express their love for him. I'm not sure Ronnie had a lot of love in his life. At least in the end there, he got that.

— Andrew Valdez, Defense attorney^[50]

See also

References

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