Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [236]
JUSTICE HENRIOD Thank you. Which one of you gentlemen wants to address the court? You may proceed.
MR. BOAZ Your Honor, the Supreme Court of the State of Utah . . .
I have reviewed the case set by the Attorney General and agree with their opinion . . . This is not a case where my client makes some kind of suicide pact with the State, or has some kind of perverse death wish. He is a man who is willing to accept the responsibility for his act, and he has asked that there be speedy and just execution . . . as opposed to the lingering death that would accompany an imposed automatic appeal that might stretch into days, months, conceivably years. It is not for us to judge. None of us here have spent more than 90 percent of our adult life in the cages where the animals are. He has made an intelligent decision whether he wishes to continue his life or be executed. He is here acting in that capacity as a sane, responsible man who has accepted the judgment of the people, who has made peace with himself, and wishes to die like a man with self-respect and dignity . . . That is all he is asking of the Court, that the motion for appeal be set aside and that the Stay be vacated, and that he be allowed to die with self-respect next Monday. I now have some questions for Mr. Gilmore . . . Gary Gilmore, do you realize you have an absolute right to appeal the conviction and sentence rendered in this case?
MR. GILMORE Yes sir.
JUSTICE HENRIOD Mr. Gilmore, will you speak as loudly as you possibly can so that everyone can hear you because I can hardly hear you myself.
MR. BOAZ Did you previously indicate to your attorneys of record that you did not wish an appeal taken in this case?
MR. GILMORE I told them during the trial and perhaps before that, that if I were found guilty and sentenced to death that I would prefer to accept without any delay. I guess perhaps they didn't quite take me literal because when it became a reality and . . . I still felt the same way, they wanted to argue with me about it . . . told me they were going to file appeals over my objections. Now I wasn't able to fire them in front of a Judge and make the matter record simply because I don't have access to Judges in Court because I am in prison.
But I fired them and they understand that.
MR. BOAZ Gary Gilmore, are you in fact at this moment ready to accept execution?
MR. GILMORE Not at this moment, but I am ready to accept it . . . next Monday morning at 8:00 A.M. That is when it was set. That is when I am ready to accept it.
JUSTICE HENRIOD l think in the interest of justice we should ask Mr. Snyder to state his position. I want this to be very brief.
MR. SNYDER For the record, I have talked to Mr. Gilmore far more and far longer than Mr. Boaz has. It is my opinion that this type of decision facing Mr. Gilmore has placed tremendous emotional stress and strain upon him . . . What Mr. Gilmore, in my opinion, is attempting to do in this case is tantamount to suicide. He does not have to die . . . I think it would be a shame if this Court at this point withdrew the Stay of Execution, and allowed Mr. Gilmore to be executed on November 15th without having reviewed and considered the substantial matters which are raised both by the trial conviction and the subsequent proceeding.
JUSTICE HENRIOD Thank you.
JUSTICE MAUGHAN . . . Your concern then, as I understand it, is to make sure that as a matter of fact due process has occurred . . .
MR. SYNDER That is exactly correct. We were appointed by the Court to insure that Mr. Gilmore got a fair trial and that there was no error and the process of the trial ought to have been reviewed by this Court.
JUSTICE ELLETT You are no longer in it. You have been relieved, you have been supplanted . . .
MR. SNYDER I understand that . . .
JUSTICE ELLETT Why won't you accept in good grace his firing you, like he is willing to accept in good grace the sentence of the Court?
JUSTICE CROCKETT I think that counsel has done what they conscientiously think they should