who was executed by firing squad in utah
Ronnie Lee Gardner
title: Execution by firing squad text: of the effect of gunshot wounds on his heart during his 1938 execution by firing squad, and afterwards his body was donated to the University of Utah School of Medicine, at his request. Utah's 1960 execution of James W. Rodgers became the last execution by firing squad in the United States for nearly two decades. Since 1960 there have been three executions by firing squad, all in Utah: Gary Gilmore was executed in 1977, while John Albert Taylor chose a firing squad for his 1996 execution, in the words of "The New York Times", "to make a statement that Utah title: Ronnie Lee Gardner text: Ronnie Lee Gardner Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American criminal who received the death penalty for murder in 1985, and was executed by a firing squad by the state of Utah in 2010. Gardner's case spent nearly 25 years in the court system, prompting the Utah House of Representatives to introduce legislation to limit the number of appeals in capital cases. In October 1984, Gardner killed Melvyn John Otterstrom during a robbery in Salt Lake City. While being moved in April 1985 to a court hearing for the homicide, he fatally shot attorney title: Capital punishment in Utah text: Capital punishment in Utah Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah. Utah was the first state to resume executions after the 1967-1976 national moratorium on capital punishment, when Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in 1977. Utah is one of only two states to have ever carried out executions by firing squad, and the only one to do so after the moratorium ended. The spring 1850 garroting of Patsowits, a Ute, was the first recorded execution in the provisional State of Deseret. Utah Territory was established in September 1850, and it permitted condemned prisoners title: Capital punishment in Utah text: squad option was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives in January 1996. In 2004, the legislature passed HB180, which removed the right of the condemned to choose the method of execution and left lethal injection as the only remaining option in the state. The abolition of the firing squad was not retroactive; three inmates on death row at Utah State Prison who chose this method of execution before the end of February 2004 were to be executed by firing squad under a grandfather clause. Utah's most recent execution, that of 49-year-old Ronnie Lee Gardner on June 18, 2010, was title: John Albert Taylor text: State Prison. Taylor gave up appealing his sentence after his request for retrial was rejected by the Utah Supreme Court. He became the second person to be executed by firing squad in the United States (after Gary Gilmore) since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Taylor said he chose this method of execution to embarrass the state of Utah. On January 26, 1996, the day of Taylor's execution, legislation was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives to eliminate the firing squad. John Albert Taylor was born in Ogden, Utah to Albert and Gaylene Taylor, who separated during his