- Faith leaders and advocates urged Okland Construction to pull out of contract to retrofit the firing squad execution unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
- Over 2,000 signatures and a letter from faith leaders were delivered to Okland's Salt Lake office.
SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly 16 years after Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in Utah, his brother still has nightmares about it.
"I've had nightmares over this. I've had nightmares of executing my kids, (of) executing my mother. ... That's just part of the collateral damage that we have when we have the death penalty," Randy Gardner said Monday. "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing is wrong?"
A longtime advocate against the death penalty, Gardner on Monday joined other advocates and faith leaders to deliver a petition with over 2,000 signatures and a letter from faith leaders, to Okland Construction's Salt Lake office, asking the company to pull out of a contract to retrofit the firing squad execution unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
The Idaho Legislature last year passed a bill that made firing squads the state's primary execution method. Signed by Gov. Brad Little, the law is set to take effect July 1.
In June 2025, the Idaho Department of Correction announced that it was set to begin a "retrofit of the execution unit in F-Block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution" to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Publicly available legal filings show that Okland Construction, along with other firms, are directly involved in the redesign of the prison's execution unit. The retrofit is expected to cost upward of $900,000.
Deacon Scott Dodge, director of the office of life, justice and peace for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, was one of the faith leaders who signed his name on the letter.
"The cornerstone of Catholic teaching on human dignity is that each and every person is uniquely created in the image and likeness of God, and that people should have an opportunity to repent and to pay their debt to society without that being lethal," Dodge said. "Several years ago, Pope Francis made a notable change in church teaching in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, when he said that for Catholics, the death penalty is inadmissible because it is such a grave violation of human dignity."
Dodge was also part of a small group of about 10 people who delivered the letter from faith leaders and the petition to Okland's Salt Lake City office.
Celina Chapin, an advocate with the national group One Rises, was also present for the exchange at Okland's office and said representatives from the company accepted both documents from the group.
"They didn't say anything; they didn't make any commitments or statements or anything like that. They listened to everyone, which is good, and it's important," Chapin said. "That's all that we can hope for for now, and I think that we'll follow up in the hopes that they do pull out of this contract."
Chapin said there's precedent for companies to do so, too.
Franklin, Tennessee-based company FDR Safety in February 2022 terminated a controversial contract with the state of Alabama after it was tasked with coming up with safety methods for correctional facility employees involved in administering the death penalty in Alabama detention facilities, according to reporting from the Tennessean.
The contact was particularly controversial due to Alabama's then-proposed, now adopted protocol of executing prisoners on death row via nitrogen hypoxia, a method that would asphyxiate the inmate through a gas chamber or gas mask.
Gardner said he'd love to see Okland Construction follow suit.
"It's not a big project for them; I think it's a million dollars. Okland Construction has been around a long time, and they've got multi-, probably million or billion-dollar projects going on. I think they're a good company, and I think it'd put a stain on their reputation in the future," Gardner said.
Okland Construction didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from KSL.
