Utah adopted lethal injection as the default execution method in 2004, but Gardner was one still allowed to choose the controversial firing squad option because he was sentenced before the law changed. He told his lawyer he did it because he preferred it — not because he wanted the controversy surrounding the execution to draw attention to his case or embarrass the state.
The executioners were all certified police officers who volunteered for the task and remain anonymous. They stood about 25 feet from Gardner, behind a wall cut with a gunport, and were armed with a matched set of .30-caliber Winchester rifles. One was loaded with a blank so no one knows who fired the fatal shot. Sandbags stacked behind Gardner's chair kept the bullets from ricocheting around the cinderblock room.
請google標題: Four bullet holes in an execution chamber: How double killer met his end at hands of a firing squad (after watching Lord of the Rings trilogy) By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 12:01 PM on 18th June 2010
Fatal: Four bullet holes can be seen in the wooden panel behind the chair where Ronnie Gardner was restrained as the squad opened fire in Utah this morning
The four bullets tore into the wooden panel. Gardner was shot at by 5 executioners - but the fifth bullet was a blank, meaning no one knows who fired the fatal shots