Gary Gilmore

Until the volley of rifle fire ripped through the target over his heart 10 years ago, Gary Gilmore could have changed the script. He was, after all, its author. The death sentence he refused to appeal on Jan. 17, 1977, became the first carried out in the United States in a decade. It was bound to bring public attention and stir debate.

A Utah inmate facing the death penalty for a violent 1985 escape attempt is scheduled to die on June 18 by firing squad, an execution method that has been phased out in nearly every state, including Utah. Ronnie Lee Gardner elected Friday to face a firing squad under a provision of state law that exempts five death row inmates who signaled their preference to die by firing squad before Utah all but banned the old, frontier-style practice in 2004. "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner, 49, told District Judge Robin Reese during Friday's hearing in Salt Lake City.

A Utah inmate facing the death penalty for a violent 1985 escape attempt is scheduled to die on June 18 by firing squad, an execution method that has been phased out in nearly every state, including Utah. Ronnie Lee Gardner elected Friday to face a firing squad under a provision of state law that exempts five death row inmates who signaled their preference to die by firing squad before Utah all but banned the old, frontier-style practice in 2004. "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner, 49, told District Judge Robin Reese during Friday's hearing in Salt Lake City.

Journalist Mikal Gilmore seems to have achieved some sort of inner peace. He's given up drinking and lost a great deal of the weight he gained during his bout with the bottle. And he's thrilled with the outcome of "Shot in the Heart," HBO's movie version of his acclaimed 1994 nonfiction book chronicling the tragic story of his family.

San Diego firefighters helped a Vista man out of a tight jam Wednesday night, and police promptly arrested him, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. Responding to a call of a possible burglary and of screams for help, police found Kevin Charles Jones, 32, stuck in the air vent of Gary Gilmore, Goldsmith, a jewelry store in the 4900 block of Newport Avenue.

People who knew Gary Gilmore recall a complex, enigmatic man unable or unwilling to master the rage that followed him out of prisons where he had spent more than half of his 36 years. And they remember his eyes--an artist's eyes, a lover's eyes, a killer's eyes. On one side, Gilmore was a perceptive, sensitive poet familiar with the works of Shelley, Browning and Chaucer. He was a tender lover to his girlfriend, Nicole Baker, and gentle with her two young children.

Gary Gilmore didn't get everything he wanted when he sought execution. He wanted to be tied to a stake, hands behind his back, staring at his five rifle-bearing executioners. He wanted to refuse a blindfold. He had said he considered the military method of execution more dignified. Instead, Gilmore, wearing a black T-shirt, white prison trousers and tennis shoes, was seated in a wooden office chair inside an old, damp prison warehouse that had once been a cannery.

Most new books reach store shelves without so much as an ad or media interview to herald their arrival. These books have to make their own way in the marketplace, needing good reviews or satisfied word of mouth among readers. On the opposite end of the marketing spectrum are the Big Books of Michael Crichton, Robert Ludlum and other brand names that go on sale in tall stacks supported by plentiful advertising. Mikal Gilmore's "Shot in the Heart" occupies its own niche.

Journalist Mikal Gilmore seems to have achieved some sort of inner peace. He's given up drinking and lost a great deal of the weight he gained during his bout with the bottle. And he's thrilled with the outcome of "Shot in the Heart," HBO's movie version of his acclaimed 1994 nonfiction book chronicling the tragic story of his family.

British punk band the Adverts' 1977 song "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" was high on shock value, exploiting one of that year's media cause celebres--the Utah execution of convicted murderer Gilmore, whose corneas were donated for eye transplant surgery. Not surprisingly, hearing that song for the first time was very disturbing to Mikal Gilmore, the killer's younger brother.

If all goes according to plan, four days from now John Albert Taylor will eat a pizza, smoke a cigarette, then be strapped into a chair and shot in the heart for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Charla King in 1989. If a bill to be introduced this month in the Legislature becomes law, the 36-year-old Taylor may be the last person executed by firing squad in the United States.

What could be more purely Americana? It's a photograph that could be found hanging above a mantelpiece. Maybe slipped inside a gilded frame centered atop the TV. Father in straw hat, mother in cloth dress, stern faces and seen-too-much eyes peering far beyond the lens, into an expanse--probably the future. Instead of the symbolic pitchfork and wood-frame farmhouse looming in the background, front-and-center stand three healthy boys--smiling or goofing.

Most new books reach store shelves without so much as an ad or media interview to herald their arrival. These books have to make their own way in the marketplace, needing good reviews or satisfied word of mouth among readers. On the opposite end of the marketing spectrum are the Big Books of Michael Crichton, Robert Ludlum and other brand names that go on sale in tall stacks supported by plentiful advertising. Mikal Gilmore's "Shot in the Heart" occupies its own niche.

San Diego firefighters helped a Vista man out of a tight jam Wednesday night, and police promptly arrested him, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. Responding to a call of a possible burglary and of screams for help, police found Kevin Charles Jones, 32, stuck in the air vent of Gary Gilmore, Goldsmith, a jewelry store in the 4900 block of Newport Avenue.

What could be more purely Americana? It's a photograph that could be found hanging above a mantelpiece. Maybe slipped inside a gilded frame centered atop the TV. Father in straw hat, mother in cloth dress, stern faces and seen-too-much eyes peering far beyond the lens, into an expanse--probably the future. Instead of the symbolic pitchfork and wood-frame farmhouse looming in the background, front-and-center stand three healthy boys--smiling or goofing.

British punk band the Adverts' 1977 song "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" was high on shock value, exploiting one of that year's media cause celebres--the Utah execution of convicted murderer Gilmore, whose corneas were donated for eye transplant surgery. Not surprisingly, hearing that song for the first time was very disturbing to Mikal Gilmore, the killer's younger brother.

People who knew Gary Gilmore recall a complex, enigmatic man unable or unwilling to master the rage that followed him out of prisons where he had spent more than half of his 36 years. And they remember his eyes--an artist's eyes, a lover's eyes, a killer's eyes. On one side, Gilmore was a perceptive, sensitive poet familiar with the works of Shelley, Browning and Chaucer. He was a tender lover to his girlfriend, Nicole Baker, and gentle with her two young children.

Until the volley of rifle fire ripped through the target over his heart 10 years ago, Gary Gilmore could have changed the script. He was, after all, its author. The death sentence he refused to appeal on Jan. 17, 1977, became the first carried out in the United States in a decade. It was bound to bring public attention and stir debate.