After a host of request for a last-minute stay of execution were denied, Ronnie Lee Gardner is set to become the first man put to death by firing squad in the United States in 14 years. Gardner, who has already said goodbye to his family, has been on death row since 1985 after he shot an attorney in a courthouse where he was being tried for a separate murder. But police had been aware of Gardner long before he committed two murders. By age 10, when he had been sniffing glue and gasoline for four years, he became addicted to heroin and LSD. He was also assisting his stepfather as a lookout on robberies. And at the age of 11, he was sent to live in a mental institution for 18 months. In the hours before he was scheduled to be executed, Gardner read the novel "Divine Justice," watched "Lord of the Rings," and met with his attorneys. Gardner's execution is scheduled for just past midnight Friday in Utah.
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