Utah: Prison spent $165,000 on Gardner execution

The chair in which Gardner was
shot by a firing squad

The Department of Corrections spent $165,000 to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner earlier this year.

The bulk of those costs, about $105,000, went toward normal wages for prison staff who were working on execution details, said Steve Gehrke, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. About $35,000 was overtime pay.

Another $25,000 went toward materials used directly in the execution, including the chair in which Gardner was shot by a firing squad and the jumpsuit he wore.

The department declined to provide a more specific breakdown of costs, citing security issues.

"Knowing that we'll likely have to do this again at some point in the future, it would be concerning to lay out all the details that go into carrying out this process," Gehrke said Thursday.

Gardner, 49, was sentenced to die for killing attorney Michael Burdell during an April 2, 1985, escape attempt from a courthouse in Salt Lake City. He had been brought there for a hearing on charges in the 1984 robbery and slaying of Melvyn John Otterstrom at a Salt Lake City bar. After his girlfriend slipped him a gun, Gardner wounded bailiff Nick Kirk and fatally shot Burdell before being captured on the courthouse lawn.

Gardner also was charged with capital murder for killing Otterstrom, a husband and father who was a controller for the Utah Paper Box Co. by day and a part-time bartender in the evening. He pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder as part of a plea bargain and received a sentence of 5 years to life in prison.

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, October 21, 2010

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