Firing Line With William F. Buckley: Norman Mailer- 'Crime & Punishment: Gary Gilmore'

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- Author Norman Mailer, talking about his book about convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, in 1979.

"Episode S0390, Recorded on October 11, 1979, Guest: Norman Mailer"

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley

This is about convicted serial murderer Gary Gilmore who was obviously guilty of multiple murders out in Utah in the mid 1970s. Gilmore, not only admitted to his murders, but wanted to take responsibility for all of them by paying the ultimate price for them with his life and getting the death penalty for them.

Most convicted murderers who are facing the death penalty fight to the very end and even if they admit to their murders, they at least try to get their death sentence overturned and get life in prison instead. But Gary Gilmore perhaps similar to a cancer patient who perhaps knows they can be alive indefinitely, but will be in pain the rest of their lives, or at least under heavy medication for the rest of their lives, to relieve the pain and be able to stay alive and decide that its not worth it to them and decide to end their own life through physician assisted suicide, Gilmore knew he was a murderer and believed his life wasn’t worth saving or preserving and fought to get the death penalty.

Gilmore, was sentenced to death for the two murders that he committed and instead of appealing his death sentence, he instead decided that he would just accept and be put to death. And anti-death penalty groups in the mid 1970s fought to get his death sentence overturned and his case gets to the Supreme Court where they decided that would be put to death. And I guess Gilmore in a sense and won that case even though the prize was the death penalty, but that’s exactly what he wanted to begin with.

You can also see this post on WordPress.