Utah Killer Dies in First Firing Squad Execution Since 1977
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POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN, Utah — Convicted killer John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad early Friday.
The simultaneous boom of five rifles broke the silence at Utah State Prison just after midnight in the nation’s first execution by firing squad since Gary Gilmore in 1977.
Taylor, 36, was found guilty in 1989 of raping an 11-year-old girl and strangling her with a telephone cord. Though he had insisted he was wrongly convicted, he fired his lawyers last year and dropped all appeals, saying he preferred death to prison.
Utah offers the condemned the choice between firing squad or lethal injection. Taylor had said he chose the firing squad to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder.
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