Man recounts brother’s execution by Utah firing squad

Randy Gardner, of Salt Lake City, the older brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last inmate to be killed by firing squad in Utah in 2010, stands in front of the Utah State Capitol, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Utah is the only state in the past 40 years to carry out such a death sentence, with three executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Randy Gardner, of Salt Lake City, the older brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last inmate to be killed by firing squad in Utah in 2010, stands in front of the Utah State Capitol, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Utah is the only state in the past 40 years to carry out such a death sentence, with three executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

By Associated Press March 12, 2015 4 min read

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Randy Gardner still struggles four years later to talk about seeing his brother’s bullet-riddled body at the mortuary after he was executed.

Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last person to die by firing squad in Utah – a method state lawmakers voted this week to reinstate, illustrating frustrations across the U.S. over bungled executions and shortages of lethal-injection drugs.

Randy Gardner made it clear Wednesday he did not condone what his brother did – first killing a bartender and later shooting a lawyer to death and wounding a bailiff during a courthouse escape attempt.

But he said the firing squad is brutal.

“When you take somebody and you tie them to a chair, put a hood over their head, and you shoot them from 25 feet with four rifles pointed at their heart, that’s pretty barbaric.”