SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Ronnie Lee Gardner will die strapped to a metal chair with a cover pulled over his head.
Prison officials have already moved him to an observation cell where someone will always be watching him.
“An observation cell is just more out of the way. It’s more private,” says Steve Gehrke, a Prison Spokesperson.
In that room, officials say he will be allowed to meet with his clergy and attorney. They will keep him away from the other inmates, while guards stand on high alert preparing for what may be a tense environment at the prison leading up to the execution.
“Generally what you see going into something like this things get a little more quiet. They get a little more somber. People realize this is a serious thing that’s going to be happening,” says Gehrke.
It’s the ending of a man’s life. A man who chose to end another’s life, but before they pull the trigger, they did grant him an early last meal request of steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and 7-up.
“He requested specifically that he have 48 hours after that last meal in which he could fast and prepare for the actual execution process,” says Gehrke.
It’s a process that will kill him when 5 rifles aimed at his heart come into the execution room through this narrow slit in the wall.
Gardner is set to die by firing squad after midnight, Friday morning.
