My Brother Chose a Firing Squad

Randy Gardner called in to talk with Howard about his little brother, Ronnie Lee Gardner, who’s scheduled to be executed by firing squad in Utah tomorrow: “We’re pretty close. It’s pretty traumatic.”

Randy said they’d both been raised by the state: “I did about 7 months [in jail] one time…I knew when he was younger that something like this could happen.”

Randy said Ronnie used to listen to the show back before he was incarcerated, leading Robin to laugh: “Why didn’t he ever call in? Maybe we could’ve straightened him out.”

Randy told the crew his brother had requested to die by firing squad because “he kind of believes in an eye for an eye and that’s how his victim died.”