Ronnie Lee Gardner spent his final hours watching The Lord of the Rings.
He was 49 years old and had spent 25 years on death row. He had killed attorney Michael Burdell in 1985, during an attempted escape at a courthouse in Salt Lake City. No one disputes that. What few people remember is how he waited for the end.
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He could choose how to die because he was sentenced before Utah changed the law in 2004. He chose the firing squad.
He had steak, lobster tail, apple pie and vanilla ice cream for his last meal. Then he stopped eating: he requested a 48-hour fast. Meanwhile, he watched Peter Jackson’s trilogy and read a thriller, Divine Justice. According to those who were close to him, he was relaxed. He said goodbye to his brother and daughter, and asked that no family members come to watch him die.
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On June 18, 2010, at 12:20 a.m., they strapped him to a black chair, with a hood over his head and a target on his chest. Five shooters took aim. One of the rifles had blanks, so none of them would know whether they had fired the shot that killed him.
