ray dempsey gardner was executed by firing squad in utah on october 24, 1912.
ray dempsey gardner was executed by firing squad in utah on october 24, 1912.
who was executed by firing squad in utah on october 24, 1912?
ray dempsey gardner
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the spring 1850 garroting of patsowits, a ute, was the first recorded execution in the provisional state of deseret. utah territory was established in september 1850, and it permitted condemned prisoners to choose between hanging and firing squad. in 1851, beheading was introduced as a third execution option. no prisoner chose this method and the option was eliminated in 1888. in 1955, utah state lawmakers voted to introduce the electric chair; however, the state never used electrocution due to failure to provide appropriation. forty-four executions occurred in the state of utah and utah territory before the national moratorium in 1967; six were by hanging and 38 were by firing squad. in 1958, twenty-one-year-old barton kay kirkham became the last prisoner to be hanged by the state of utah. the last pre-moratorium execution in utah took place on march 30, 1960.in 1967, when the moratorium went into effect, utah was the only remaining state to allow death row inmates to choose between firing squad and hanging. utah attempted to reintroduce death penalty statutes during the moratorium but they were struck down by the 1972 united states supreme court decision in the case "furman v. georgia". the state formally reinstated capital punishment on january 7, 1973, and the new death penalty statutes were approved by the united states supreme court with the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. the reinstatement allowed utah to move forward with the death sentences of dale selby pierre and william andrews for crimes committed in 1974 prior to the reinstatement of capital punishment. they were later executed in 1987 and 1992, respectively. on january 17, 1977, utah became the first state to execute a prisoner after the moratorium ended: gary gilmore was executed by a firing squad, having selected that method over hanging. lethal injection was introduced in 1980 and in february of that year, the utah state legislature replaced the option of hanging with the option of lethal injection.
capital punishment in utah