In the Belly of the Beast: The Birth of Death (Writings by Death Row Inmates‪)‬

The United States has more than its share of infamous murderers. Perhaps one of the best known, Gary Gilmore, did not rise to the forefront of public consciousness for the heinousness of the crime that landed him on death row (on separate occasions he robbed and then killed two men in 1976). (1) Rather, Gary Gilmore is generally remembered within the forensic community for demanding that he be put to death (by firing squad) on the execution date set by the court, refusing all appeals and every effort to commute his sentence. To his death, Gilmore effectively maintained control over his own life and in doing so, forced the state of Utah to relinquish the very control the correctional system is designed to take from and hold over its inmates, especially those on death row. With capital punishment re-instituted in the United States less than one year earlier, (2) in 1997 Gilmore heralded its return as the first person executed in America since 1967. Gilmore is perhaps more widely remembered as the subject of Norman Mailer's 1979 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Executioner's Song. (3) From the Inside Out