Ronnie Lee Gardner was being transported from the maximum security unit of the Utah State Prison to the Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City to appear at a hearing on a second degree murder charge. As he entered the basement lobby of the Hall, he was handed a gun by a female accomplice. He fumbled with the unfamiliar weapon; his guards retreated to the parking lot.
Gunfire was exchanged, and defendant was shot in the shoulder. He entered an archives room, looking for a way out of the building. There he encountered a court clerk, a prison officer, and three attorneys. Two of the attorneys sought refuge behind the office door. Defendant turned on them, pointed the gun at one and then the other, and fired, killing attorney Michael Burdell.
The prison officer, Richard Thomas, was forced to lead defendant out of the archives room to a stairwell leading to the second floor. As defendant crossed the lobby, Nick Kirk, a uniformed bailiff, came down the stairway to investigate the disturbance. Defendant shot and seriously wounded Kirk and then proceeded up the stairs. On the next floor, defendant encountered Wilburn Miller, a vending machine serviceman, and forced him to accompany defendant outside of the building. As defendant stepped outside, Miller broke free and dived through a teller’s window inside the building. Once outside, defendant, wounded, shackled, and surrounded by police, threw down his gun and surrendered.
Utah courts buzzing with talk of security
Ronnie wants a pen pal!
Court Opinion
Utah
Utah
Gardner Wants to Expand His Death-Row Appeal
Ronnie Lee Gardner’s Appeal Referred to Utah Supreme Court
Inmate asks high court to proceed with appeal
Ronnie Lee Gardner appeal 1
Ronnie Lee Gardner appeal 2
Ronnie Lee Gardner appeal 3
Ronnie Lee Gardner appeal 4
Filed under: crime, death penalty, high profile, murder, murder in the 20th Century Tagged: | 1985, death row, escaping inmate, homicide, Michael Burdell, Nick Kirk, Ronnie Lee Gardner, shooting, Utah
[...] Ronnie Lee Gardner State of Utah vs. Ronnie Lee Gardner [...]
dont suppse you woyld believe the whole trial was a sham and gardner should have not gotten the death penalty
No, I would not ever believe that. After all, Gardner was on trial for another murder when he was given a GUN and tried to escape the courtroom and he USED that gun and shot 2 people. Are those the actions of an innocent man? I suppose he has never hurt anyone in his whole life, huh? You probably believe that he did not even shoot these people, huh? All of those eyewitnesses are just personally against him – he was framed huh? Give me a break. The eyewitnesses SAW him shoot the 2 people. And why was he trying to escape with a gun in the first place?
thetruth slc,
Tell me your kidding.
my name is billyjo gardner my brother is RONNIE LEE GARDNER little bro i know what my brother did was wrong im sorry but killing him will not bring back what was lost if the state utah kills him whos any better my brother or the state murder is murder why not kill some of these baby rappers who takes a childs innocents they cant give that back they are protected there sick if there sick kill theme
BillyJo,
I personally DO believe in the death penalty for baby rapers. And I am a firm believer in it for murderers. No, the victim will not be able to come back, but sometimes, there needs to be punishment for punishments sake. Your brother is one of the best examples of why we need the death penalty. He has committed crimes while being locked up, including this one and his “hostage” situation. After that stunt, he should have been cut off of all outside contact. No phone calls, no visits, no letters, no nothing. Those are not rights, those are privileges and he does not deserve them. And personally, I hope he is the next one up for execution.
12 more days and Ronnie Lee Gardner is dead, dead, dead; just as he should be; and should have been years ago.
death is the right answer ~ why took so long? Liberalism is a mental disorder!
Instead of killing off deranged murderers, why doesn’t America do something to prevent the insanity to start with. Death penalty is NOT the answer – it’s just another quick fix that your country is so fond of. Shame of you & and your backward laws.
From Elsewhere
Most of these killers are not insane or mentally ill. Especially Ronnie Lee Gardner. He chose to kill. He meant to kill. He did it on purpose. There is no fixing someone like that.
Sorry BilyJo, your brother was an animal! He certainly deserved the execution that he got, even he would have told you so himself…………
Who ever said the execution was about bringing back the dead? Do you really think anyone thinks that? One thing’s for sure, your piece of crap brother will never kill again — and maybe, just maybe, people who think about murdering other innocents will think twice before killing again. It’s about justice for the dead, not about resurrecting them — and you know what else? Letting him live a nice, cushy life in prison won’t bring back the dead, either, or give them justice, or guarantee he never kills again. But by executing him, all the things that are possible are achieved.
The death penalty shouldn’t be called a penalty. It should be called euthanasia, as we call it when we put down an animal that has become vicious. When you kill other people, you prove that you have no regard for their right to live. If you do it just to escape justice, then you prove that you are a psychopath/sociopath and thus a threat to society. Putting to death an individual who is a psychopath is an act of defence on part of the state – the state – not private citizens! I may be Swedish, but I am a strong believer in the death penalty.
america strapped this man (Ronnie Lee Gardner) to a chair and had five cops shoot him in cold blood. I have not forgot. It is a sad thing to live with. God help them, for they know not what they do. Execution by a society diminishes that society. It diminishes all of us as people. From a purely economic viewpoint, it’s less expensive to incarcerate a murderer for life than to execute him. Since 1973, there have been 139 exonerations of death row inmates in the United States. As Christians, the thought of an innocent man being put to death in our name should be particularly abhorrent since Our Lord Himself was an innocent man condemned to die by execution. Execution violates the sanctity of human life and assumes prerogatives that belong only to God. For the familys of the murder victim I believe that the best way to support them is to give witness to the preciousness and the sanctity of life. faith teaches us that life is a precious gift from God that must be respected and protected. We condemn and are abhorred by the acts of certain individuals, but we are called always to love and to forgive them as persons.
John,
You speak only of the killer, but not once in these words of Christianity and such did you even mention any words of compassion for the victims of Ronnie Lee Gardner. Ronnie Lee Gardner killed Michael Burdell and Melvyn Otterstrom and wounded Nick Kirk (which he died from those injuries years later, suffering every day of his life til the end). You have the right to not believe in the death penalty, but if you are the Christian you seem to be portraying yourself, find compassion for those this killer destroyed. They are far more important than he is.
And remember, more than 70% of American’s (of which most are Christians) do believe in and support the death penalty.
John,
I’m an atheist and to me Christianity is something that smells like burning human flesh because it took it upon themselves to determine who was a witch and who wasn’t. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t originates from that era. That being said, my belief in the death penalty comes from a more scientific source: Medicine. It is av proven fact that most of those who commit capital murder, are psychopaths. A such individual lacks everything that makes a human civilized and compassionate – and it’s incurable as it originates from av missing neural path between the frontal lobes of the brain. To put such an individual to death is the only way to ensure that he doesn’t kill again. One day maybe science gives us a way to fix this while he is still an infant – which will lead to a cinsiderable drop in overall crime – but untill then, the deathpenalty is the best we have
I stand by what I wrote
Fair enough, John.