December 2021 | Page 20 of 26

Jesse Bishop Nevada Execution

Jesse Bishop was executed by the State of Nevada for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents Jesse Bishop would shoot and kill a man during a robbery at a Las Vegas casino. Jesse Bishop would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jesse Bishop would be executed in the gas chamber on October 22, 1979. Jesse Bishop would brag that he was responsible for 18 murders.

Jesse Bishop More News

He had three wishes: to be with a woman, to have a fifth of Jack Daniel’s and to be executed with dispatch. A few minutes after midnight today, the people of Nevada granted Jesse Walter Bishop only the last one.

Bishop, condemned to death on a murder conviction, went as calmly and as boldly as he said he would. He gestured to and smiled at the 14 official witnesses. He pointed at the floor to indicate that the deadly cyanide pellets had reached a waiting vessel of acid.

He wrinkled his nose, witnesses said, at the first fumes. Then came deep, desperate gulps for air. His face turned up to the ceiling of the Nevada state gas chamber. He convulsed, saliva ran from his mouth, his face turned red. His eyes closed and his chin fell to his chest.

At 12:21 a.m. today, Bishop, 46, was pronounced dead, the last scene of a criminal life that began with an armed robbery at age 15 and proceeded seemingly inexorably to today’s conclusion.

Bishop saw it as unavoidable. Prison director Charles L. Wolff Jr. reported Bishop’s last words as these:

“This is just one more step down the road of life that I’ve been headin’ for all my life.”

It was a step that satisfied some, saddened others. As Bishop’s corpse waited in the six-sided gas chamber while the deadly air was cleared, Dan Seaton, a Clark County prosecutor who worked on Bishop’s case, told assembled reporters he advocates the death penalty as a deterrent to those who might otherwise follow the footsteps of people like Jesse Bishop.

Across from the prison, however, about 50 candle-carrying protesters assembled to silently express rage at the official killing of Bishop, which two U.S. Supreme Court justices had called “state-assisted suicide” because of Bishop’s attitude.

On blue cloth, lit from behind by a lantern, they had painted: “Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing is wrong?”

There was no answer from the prison, only light from the two windows high on the northeast corner of the stone block building, where Bishop was executed.

The execution could have been stopped or delayed, but only by Bishop. He firmly refused to appeal, refused to plead for his own life, refused to put off what he called the inevitable occupational hazard — execution — of his chosen profession.

He just wanted to get it over with.

Then it was over. A telephone rang in the guardhouse by the gate and Howard Pyle of the prison staff emerged to say, “Jesse Walter Bishop was pronounced dead at 12:21 a.m.”

Seven minutes later, Wolff arrived to read various legal instruments, including what was to be done by and for Clark County (Las Vegas), and to report that he, Wolff, had “obeyed said warrant” by and for Clark County, Nev.

He repeated Bishop’s last words and retreated.

Moments later, when a handful of the witnesses appeared, Ann Salisbury, a Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter who has covered Bishop’s story and talked with him many times, cleared her throat and asked the questions.

They described the raising of a windowshade, disclosing Bishop strapped in one of two white metal chairs, the one on their left. The other was empty. They described how he gestured, how he raised a strapped hand and nodded.

The cyanide pellets were dropped at 12:11 a.m. Bishop’s gasps and spasms took six minutes. He twitched for two more. He was pronounced dead two minutes later.

Bishop was executed for the first-degree murder of David Ballard, a Baltimore man visiting Las Vegas Dec. 20, 1977. Ballard went there to be married and to honeymoon, but only two hours separated Katherine Ballard from becoming a bride and the events that would make her a widow on Dec. 30 when Ballard died

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/10/23/bishop-granted-his-wish-death-without-a-delay/e2a66f52-8c47-464b-a6e5-b0b93e5a1f4b/

John Spenkelink Florida Execution

John Spenkelink was executed by the State of Florida for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents John Spenkelink had escaped from a prison in California when he made his way to Florida. John Spenkelink would get into an argument with the victim. left and came back with a gun which he used to shoot the victim in the back killing him. John Spenkelink would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. John Spenkelink would be executed by electric chair on May 25, 1979

John Spenkelink More News

The state of Florida trussed. John Arthur Spenkelink immobile in the electric chair this Morning, dropped a black leather mask over his face and electrocuted him.

“He simply looked at us and he looked terrified,” said Kris Rebillot, a reporter who wag one of 32 persons who watched through a window from an adjoining room. “It was just a wide, wide, wide stare.”

The execution was carried out a few hours after the last plea in an extended legal battle. It was the first execution in the United States since Gary Mark Gilmore faced a Utah firing squad voluntarily on Jan. 16, 1977, and the first since 1967 in which the condemned person was put to death against his will.

John Spenkelink made no final statement. The prison authorities said that had been his wish.

The prisoner was given three surges of electricity, The first, 2,500 volts, was administered at 10:12 A.M. Mr. Spenkelink jerked in the chair and one hand clenched into a fist. •

Then came the second, and the third, by two executioners in black hoods. A doctor stepped forward after the third surge, pulled up the prisoner’s T‐shirt and applied a stethoscope to Mr. Spenke1 ink’s chest..

He then checked for a pulse. Then he stepped back. He returned to the prisoner and examined him once more, and backed away again. A third time, at 10:18, he checked the prisoner for a pulse, examined Mr. Spenkelink’s eyes with pocket pen‐flashlight, and nodded to the warden that the prisoner was dead.

John Spenkelink, who was 30 years old, was convicted in 1973 of the killing of fellow drifter, Joseph Syzmankiewicz, 95.

Reporters here today were told by the Rev. Tom Feamster, an Episcopal priest who was the last to speak with Mr. Spenkelink, that the condemned man had told him, “Man is what he chooses to be; he chooses that for himself.”

“But the last thing that he said to me was that he loved me,” the burly, 6‐foot‐6 minister said, “and the last thing I said to him was that I loved him.”

He also quoted Mr. Spenkelink as saying, “If this comes down, I hope that some good will come of it.” Between 6 and 6:30 A.M. Mr. Spenkelink spoke with his mother, Lois, who had ‘made several attempts personally to gain a stay or clemency for her son.

The 1 A.M. execution hour was set early today after the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans dissolved a stay granted earlier 1 by a Federal district judge.

That stay, along with another granted separately by Justice Thurgood Marshall 1 of the Supreme Court, and subsequently dissolved by the full Court, reprieved Mr. Spenkelink from his original execution date, 7 A.M. Monday. Today attorneys for Mr. Spenkelink tried again to gain another stay.

Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General, had taken a role in the case. According to Henry Schwartzschild, project director of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations that had fought to save Mr. Spenkelink, Mr. Clark went by car from New York to Washington after he was unable to charter an airplane to deliver by hand a‐petition to the Supreme Court for a renewed stay.

Mr. Clark i arriving shortly before A.M., handed the petition to the clerk of the court, but a hurried poll of eight of the nine Justices rejected a new stay by vote of 6 to 2, with Justice Harry A. Blackmun not participating. Justices Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr. reportedly favored a new stay.

The execution was, by custom, delayed a few mimites past the scheduled hour, lest word of a reprieve come too late. It did not come at all.

Outside the prison, opponents of the death penalty, some of whom had been here since Monday, grew restive, some hysterical, as the time of execution came and passed. Some prayed; some wept; others screamed epithets and obscenities as a hearse left the prison just before 11 A.M. with the body. Earlier, they had chanted, “Government murder! Government murder!”

State Representative Andy Johnson of Jacksonville was among those who witnessed the execution today. Yesterday he introduced a bill to end executions in Florida.

Mr. Johnson termed the execution “barbaric” and “sickening,” telling reporters assembled under a blazing sun in

a cow pasture in front of the prison corn. plex: “We saw a man Sizzle today, and if you watched close, you could see him sizzle again, and sizzle again.” Minutes later, he was confronted by an unidentified man who shouted that his son had been murdered and death was the only appropriate penalty. .

Proponents of the death penalty had also encamped at the prison, some in a mobile home with a silver coffin mounted on its top and a placard urging, “Go, Sparky” — the three‐legged electric chairhere.

Those who witnessed the execution included a‐pool of nine ‘persons representing news‐gathering organizations. None spoke as graphically as Mr. Johnson had of what they had seen. “It was quicker than I expected, and it was less grvesome,” said Kris Kebillot, the 28‐year‐old television reporter. Unlike other such cases, the question of televising the Spenkelink execution was never raised.

H.G. Davis, an editorial writer for The Gainesville Sun, said he was not prepared for the sudden sight of Mr. Spinkelink behind the ‘glass window that gave on the death chamber.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/26/archives/florida-executes-killer-as-plea-fails-spenkelink-electrocuted-is.html

Gary Gilmore Utah Execution

Gary Gilmore was executed by the State of Utah for two murders that were committed during robberies. According to court documents Gary Gilmore who was a life long criminal would shoot and kill two men during two separate robberies. During the two robberies the victims both cooperated with Gilmore however he still shot and killed them. Gary Gilmore was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Gilmore would demand to be executed and he would get his wish when he was executed January 17, 1977 by firing squad.

Gary Gilmore More News

He was executed 42-years ago, but Gary Gilmore’s is still remembered for opening the doors for capital punishment.

Gilmore was executed in January 1977. It was the first execution after the U.S. Supreme Court declared it constitutional once again. In 1972, the nation’s highest court found it “cruel and unusual” form of punishment and made it unconstitutional.

State’s then revised their statutes and Gilmore was the first case to U.S. Supreme Court’s new view on capital punishment.

In September 1976, Gilmore was convicted of a double murder in Utah County.

On July 19, 1976, he murdered 24-year old Max Jensen who was working at a service station in Orem. The following night he walked into a Provo motel and shot Bennie Bushnell, the night manager. He took the money and left.

He was arrested after someone saw him throw a gun into the bushes right after the shooting.

Three months after he was arrested, Gilmore was convicted of capital murder and ordered to die. Gilmore chose to die by firing squad instead of the other option, hanging.

University of Utah law professor and former federal judge Paul Cassell still uses Gilmore’s case history in teaching law courses.

“What made the Gilmore case death-eligible was that it was a murder for money,” he said. “It was an armed robbery.”

But Gilmore gained notoriety when the rest of the country, as well as foreign countries, learned that he would be the first to be executed after the supreme court decision.

“Utah and other states passed new modern death penalty laws,” said Cassell. “Gilmore was the first case that the modern death penalty was carried out.”

From the outset, Gary Gilmore wanted to be executed and didn’t want anyone to stop him. At a 1976 Board of Pardons hearing, Gilmore spoke of that desire.

“I’ve simply accepted the sentence that was given to me,” he told board members. “I’ve accepted sentences all of my life.”

But others wanted to save his life.

His mother filed an appeal but the U.s. Supreme Court refused to hear her case.

His original execution date was set for November 15th, 1976. The Utah state prison started making arrangements.

“Traditionally there have been five men on the firing squad,” Warden Sam Smith told reporters. “Those men are armed with high powered rifles. Four of them will have actual bullets, one will be shooting a blank.”

But against his wishes, the ACLU intervened and blocked the execution on three occasions.

Their main objection was that it would open the floodgates for executions nationwide.

“It would lead to more insanity around the whole issue of the death penalty,” said Shirley Pedler of Utah’s ACLU chapter. “And the implementation of the death penalty is an insane issue.”

The governor twice issued stays of execution. He wanted the board of pardons to decide if death was appropriate in Gilmore’s case.

During the 1976 board of pardons hearing, Gary Gilmore made his intentions clear and even suggested that Utah was getting cold feet.

“It seems like the people, especially the people of Utah want the death penalty and they don’t want executions,” he said. “And when it became a reality that they might have to carry one out, well they started backing off on it. Well, I took them literal and serious when they sentenced me to death.”

The stays of execution angered Gilmore. In November he attempted suicide, recovered, but tried it again the next month.

His execution was now set for January 17th, 1977. National and international media converged at the Utah state prison.

Protestors held vigils. the ACLU made one last attempt to save his life but it was denied thirty minutes before his execution.

An ABC reporter described it this way: “The warden having read aloud the legal order that Gilmore must be shot for his crime asked quietly for any last words. Gilmore said let’s do it.”

At 8:05 a.m. a prison official received a call from the warden. The official was surrounded by reporters away from the room where Gary Gilmore was shot.

“The order of the court has been carried out,” the unidentified official told reporters. “Gary Mark Gilmore is dead.”

On January 17th, 1977, Gilmore’s wish was carried out. He was shot four times through the heart.

Reporters were given access to the room where Gilmore was shot. They took pictures of bullet holes, inspected it from top to bottom and posed in front of the chair for additional pictures.

Years later the ACLU was prophetic.

“As a result of the Gary Gilmore execution we then saw hundreds of executions in the decades that followed because Gilmore signaled that in modern America, you can have a death penalty statute that survives constitutional scrutiny,” Cassell said.

Gilmore murdered two people and was convicted by his peers. His own uncle once called him a coward. That same uncle later began visiting Gilmore at the prison. Vern Damico was Gilmore’s last visitor before he was shot.

“It was very upsetting to me but he got his wish,” said Damico following the execution. “But he did die and he died in dignity.”

It was another 19 years before there was another execution by firing squad in the United States.

It took place at the Utah state prison when John Albert Taylor was executed.

According to press accounts he did it to embarrass Utah’s barbaric method of execution.

The following year, the legislature changed future executions to lethal injection. But lawmakers grandfathered those condemned to die prior to 1996 and allowed them to choose their manner of death.

In June 2010 Utah again became the focus of capital punishment. Ronnie Lee Gardner became just the third person to be killed by a firing squad. Gardner’s crime happened before the legislature changed the law and he chose the firing squad.

Ron Lafferty was also on death row and chose the firing squad. His crime of a double murder in American Fork happened in 1984. But Lafferty died November 11 of natural causes while still in prison.

https://www.abc4.com/news/justice-files/the-justice-files-the-execution-of-gary-gilmore-2/