Gary Gilmore - Trial

Trial

Gilmore's murder trial began at the Provo courthouse on October 5, 1976. Peter Arroyo, a motel guest, testified that he saw Gilmore in the motel registration office that night and that Gilmore robbed Bushnell by the cash register. After taking all the money, Gilmore was said to have ordered Bushnell to lie down on the floor and then to have shot him in cold blood. The next witness was Gerald F. Wilkes, a local FBI ballistics expert, who testified that he found the shell casing at the crime scene which he compared to Gilmore's gun that was left there. Gilmore's two court-appointed lawyers, Michael Esplin and Craig Snyder, surprised both the prosecutor Noall T. Wootton and Judge J. Robert Bullock by not cross-examining the majority of the witnesses and offering no defense. Gilmore wanted to testify on his own behalf, but suddenly withdrew the request the following day. Both sides made closing arguments.

On October 7, at 10:13 AM, the jury retired to consider the verdict; by mid-day, they had returned with a guilty verdict. Later that day, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty, because of special circumstances to the crime.

At the time, Utah had two methods of execution — firing squad or hanging. Gilmore elected to be executed by firing squad, saying, "I'd prefer to be shot." The execution was set for November 15 at 8 AM.

Gilmore received several stays of execution, brought about against his expressed wishes by the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The last of these occurred just hours before the re-scheduled execution date of January 17. That stay was overturned at 7:30 AM, and the execution allowed to proceed as planned. At a Board of Pardons hearing in November 1976, Gilmore said of the efforts by the ACLU and others to prevent his January 17, 1977, execution: "They always want to get in on the act. I don't think they have ever really done anything effective in their lives. I would like them all — including that group of reverends and rabbis from Salt Lake City — to butt out. This is my life and this is my death. It's been sanctioned by the courts that I die and I accept that."

During the time Gilmore was on death row awaiting his execution, he attempted suicide twice, the first time on November 16 after the first stay was issued, and again one month later.