Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [225]
Of course, Gilmore wasn't going to get loose that easy, the lawyers agreed, but it sure could prove embarrassing. The State would look ridiculous and incompetent holding him in jail on one pretext or another while the law was straightened out in the Legislature and the Courts.
Earl Dorius called Sam Smith back and said, "You better start preparing for an execution." The Warden was awestruck.
Nonetheless, Sam Smith started asking some good questions.
How many members of the firing squad would there be, he inquired?
From where could he draw them, out of the community at large or from the ranks of police officers?
The Warden had also looked up the appropriate statutes and they left something to be desired. They didn't, for example, tell the Warden whether it was possible to conduct the execution outside the prison walls. They were not precise on a host of matters. A lot would have to be decided. Gilmore, for instance, wanted to donate a few of his body organs to the University Medical Center. Could Earl look up the law on that?
Dorius was excited. He realized he was sitting on a very hot case, and started going around the office telling people, "You won't believe this, but we have a potential execution on our hands." He went down to the Attorney General's office, but the A.G. was out, so he had to tell the secretaries. Earl was a little disappointed with the reaction. It was as if they really didn't get the import of what he was saying. First execution in America in ten years! You couldn't exactly shout that at people.
November 1
Hi Baby
Just wrote a letter to Warden Smith asking for a little more visiting time. I told him it meant a great deal to both of us. It would probably help if you would talk to him too. I don't know what kind of guy he is, and I didn't know how to approach him in my letter. I simply told him I expect to be executed as scheduled Nov. 5 and that the only request I have to make is that l be allowed to see you more . . . I told him that you and me have a real good understanding and that we don't depress each other with our visits in spite of the circumstances I'm in. I sorta felt it mite be good to say that cause you know how these people sometimes think Baby you said in a letter a couple of days ago that no woman ever loved a man more than you love me. I believe that. I feel blessed with your love. And Angel no man ever loved a woman more than I love you. I love you with all that I am: And you keep making me more than I am.
Early on the morning of the 2nd, Election Day, Earl got a telephone call from Eric Mishara of the National Enquirer. He had called the Warden who referred him to the prison's legal counsel.
Mishara said he wanted to interview Gilmore right away.
He was too forceful for Dorius's taste. The moment Earl tried to slow him down, Mishara began to talk about what he was going to do to the prison if they attempted to keep him out.
A case came right into mind: Pell v. Procunier. It was a United States Supreme Court decision which said that members of the news media had no special right of access to inmates. The prison, Dorius told Mishara, would be taking that position-Gary Gilmore could not be interviewed.
Immediately, Mishara said, 'I'll sue." He started to talk about high-powered attorneys in New York. Dorius said, "I don't care where your attorneys are from. You have them look up Pell versus Procunier. I think they'll agree with me."
Earl didn't hear from Mr. Mishara for some time after that.
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Utah State Prison, Nov. 2- . . . If Gilmore gets his way he will be the first person executed in Utah in 16 years.
On November 2, the day he was driving to Utah, Dennis Boaz read in the papers about Gary Gilmore, and soon afterward, had this experience with death. That seemed a little synchronistic.
He was moving along in the left lane and thinking about the course he was going to give at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.