Killing A Killer

It’s one thing to support a major cause with words. It’s another to feel a part of it.

Last night, I lay half asleep in my bed, waiting until after midnight for our station to cut in announcing the death of Ronnie Lee Gardner by firing squad. Luke woke me up just seconds before the cut in. I have to say, our presentation of the announcement was…bone chilling. We had built a graphics package for this moment. The opening animation had music like a horror movie. Ronnie’s eyes stared at you from the television, looking right into you, and I got the feeling I was looking at a killer, a marked man, one who would no longer be on this earth by the hands of the State. A man who was already dead as I watched. Cristina, our reporter, spoke softly from the prison media room, telling the world Gardner had been executed at 12:20am on Friday, June 18, 2010. The entire experience, watching the report in a dark room in the middle of the night, left me nearly unable to go to sleep. You could feel something evil in the room, unsettled spirits. It took Luke holding me to be able to drift off, and even then I feared nightmares.

When I woke, I turned on the morning news, and got the full account of the execution. Gardner clenched his fist in anticipation. Five men shot their guns with a loud report. Gardner relaxed…and minutes later started twitching. The firing squad was unsure if they would have to shoot again. Had they missed? Was he dead? A doctor looked in Gardner’s eyes, checked his pulse. At 12:17, he was declared to have left this life. Our reporter Fields watched from the witness room. When he emerged, he answered questions for the press about his experience. He told them, it was violent. He’s been around guns most of his life, but the noise, combined with watching a man being shot, being killed, was not a mere “clinical” act as some others who witnessed the execution described. He was shaken.

I feel an eerie presence within myself today. I’ve always supported capital punishment. For some members of society, their crimes are so horrendous that the only way for society to get passed them is to eliminate the reminder of the tragedy. Gardner is now only a figment of history. And after some time passes, people will forget, filing this event in the back of their minds, to be brought fresh again only when another is killed by the government. An, “I remember when…”. But it’s something different when you’re this close to the story. When you hear the details. When you know that you’ve just killed a man as a collective. The jury was representative of our populace when they decided he was guilty. The judge deemed death to be the best punishment. Countless appeals were denied by several boards, judges, and politicians. The entire state of Utah, even the country, decided to kill this man for his crimes.

I’m not saying that this event has changed my view of capital punishment. There frankly was no dilemma about this case. Hundreds of people watched as he tried to escape the courthouse and shot two men trying to do it. One died instantly. One died years later from wounds that never healed. There was no doubt he was innocent. At this point, protestors only had the moral leg to stand on. Does one murder justify another murder? As one of the family members put it, the death penalty insures no more crimes will be committed by this person. I guess I loosely liken this experience to Old Yeller. You have to kill the dog, but that doesn’t make the experience any less emotional. Even if there’s a monster on the other end of your gun.

Here’s the Salt Lake Tribune’s story about what happened, how Gardner ended up on Death Row, and what happens next.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_15325197?source=rv

I’ll be glad when this day is over, and I can put this one to rest in the back of my mental filing cabinet. It’s emotionally unsettling, and I’m only glad I wasn’t the one chosen to watch it.