DRAPER, Utah -- Ronnie Lee Gardner chose to die by firing squad rather than legal injection, but death penalty opponents worldwide reacted with horror all the same, renewing an international debate about capital punishment in the United States.
Gardner was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m. Friday at the Utah State Prison.
It was the first time in 14 years that an American inmate was executed by firing squad.
He was the third man to die by firing squad since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The five executioners were police officers who volunteered for the task. They stood about 25 feet away, behind a wall cut with a gunport.
One of their .30-caliber Winchester rifles was loaded with a blank so no one would know who fired the fatal shots.
Gardner was sentenced to death in 1985 for fatally shooting attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/18/2276855/man-who-killed-lawyer-is-executed.html
He went out with a bang...