Posted on 01/17/2007 12:01:02 PM PST by Borges
It was 30 years ago today that Gary Gilmore was strapped to a chair before a firing squad and uttered his famous last words: "Let's do it."
The controversial execution that marked the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States is being revisited in protests at the Utah State Prison this weekend.
"We're mocking it," Terry McCaffrey of the global human-rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday. "It's not that we're glorifying Gary Gilmore. It's time to hopefully bring about healing."
Amnesty International plans to hold a vigil outside the prison Saturday, protesting reinstatement of the death penalty 30 years ago. The group plans to read the names of more than 1,000 people who have been executed since Gilmore — as well as their victims.
"We feel it's important because the death penalty started in 1977 at the prison in Utah and it was the first one after the Supreme Court made executions legal again," McCaffrey said. "It's an important date for us to be mocking."
Gilmore, 36, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the murder of Bennie Jenkins Bushnell, a motel manager in Provo. Gilmore also confessed to shooting and killing Max Jensen during a robbery at an Orem gas station.
Gilmore's execution — and choice to die by firing squad — generated international publicity and international debate over the death penalty.
Currently, there are nine people on death row in Utah. Four of them have elected to die by firing squad, Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said. Those inmates made their choices before Utah lawmakers eliminated the firing squad as an execution option in 2004. Among those participating in Saturday's vigil will be Alan Clarke, a criminal justice professor from Utah Valley State College, and members of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City.
While here, the head of Amnesty International plans to request a meeting with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "We want to open the dialogue with them," McCaffrey said. "I understand what the position of the LDS Church is, but there are areas of common ground."
An LDS Church spokesman declined to comment on Amnesty International's request for a meeting.
While the Catholic Church has been vocal about its opposition to the death penalty, the LDS Church has not taken a formal position.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regards the question of whether and in what circumstances the state should impose capital punishment as a matter to be decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law," a statement on the LDS Church's Web site says. "We neither promote nor oppose capital punishment."
Thank you Catholic Church, now WE'LL decide what is the only possible course to effectively defend innocent life.
I'm Catholic, but I have little use for the Catholic position on this. It is reflexively left-wing.
It was thirty years ago today
Gary Gillmore got the guns to blaze...
They're happy to let them talk to a shrink.
I thought you said you were Catholic?
I believe societies associate penalties with crimes as a way to establish the value of its citizens lives.
All who work for compensation have exchanged some portion of their life in return for that compensation, with which they obtain the necessities of life, and obtain property and possessions according to their ability and want. A society that allows criminals to take life and property and go unpunished demeans the value of that portion of its citizens lives.
When we, as a society, sentence a criminal to two years of incarceration, we are equating his damage to society with two years of a productive citizen's life. Not withstanding the punishment can not in any way restore the loss. The punishment is a value statement, not an exchange.
If I am right, the question is this: Is there anything our society holds valuable enough to be worth an entire life? If so, why should society be further burdened by a member incapable of understanding that?
To me, it is a question of values, and I think there are offenses so grevious that society must say, "This is worth more than your life!"
If we do not stand up for our values, they will be lost.
Our social contract, aka Constitution, GUARENTEES LIFE Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. When Gilmore's pursuit of happiness, robbery, includes taking someone's life, then an eye for an eye is appropriate.
The Simon Sez Syndrome as practiced by these anti death penalty poops ain't popular in polite society!
Huh? Heal what? Is he saying that the ACLU's feelings were hurt 30 years ago when the death penalty was reinstated and that by mocking its return their feelings will heal? Oh, boy, these people are petty!
It's a crime that Artis still isn't in the Hall of Fame.
IIRC, didn't Gilmore tell the ACLU to butt the hell out of his sentence and let him be executed? Maybe the American Commie League United is still in need of healing.
A criminal doesn't like us! Boo hoo!
Why don't they seek comment from the person that received Gilmore's eyes in a transplant some thirty years ago? That would at least at a bit of interest to the story as that person may have a different view of the event...
"It's an important date for us to be mocking"
That statement is an absurd contradiction right on it's face. It's important enough to mock? Oooookay. Also.. why reads the names of the victims.. what is the point to that when protesting the death penalty. These are the people for whom marxism has such warped their minds, they are unable even to see straight.
Look up Kenneth McDuff. He was on Death Row twice before we got rid of him.
Cordially,
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