Utah Firing Squad Executes Child Killer

A child killer strapped to a black metal chair with a white target over his heart became the nation’s first convict in 19 years to be executed by firing squad early today.

John Albert Taylor, 36, was executed just after midnight at Utah State Prison with a four-bullet volley fired by anonymous marksmen using .30-.30 caliber deer rifles - the type used to execute Gary Gilmore at the same prison in 1977.

Taylor, diagnosed at 17 as “a remorseless pedophile,” was convicted of raping 11-year-old Charla Nicole King and strangling the girl with a telephone cord in 1989.

Taylor said he chose the firing squad because it would be costly and embarrassing to the state and because he feared “flipping around like a fish out of water” if given an injection. He also hoped the method would more dramatically underscore his claim that his death would be state-sanctioned murder.

Wearing a dark blue jumpsuit, he was strapped into a steel chair 23 feet from five executioners, a white cloth target pinned over his heart and a pile of sandbags behind him. A black hood was placed over his head.

The executioners - all law enforcement volunteers paid $300 each - fired through rectangular openings. One gun is traditionally loaded with a blank round; none of the shooters knows which.

Taylor was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m.