USA - Utah. Prison spent $165,000 on Gardner execution.

Prison spent $165,000 on Gardner execution. The Department of Corrections spent $165,000 to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner on June 18 (see). 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. Gardner had been sentenced to death in 1985 after he was convicted of killing attorney Michael Burdell during a failed courthouse escape attempt on April 2, 1985, and then asked himself to be executed by firing squad, knowing that it would create debate.