Noall Wootton, 65; Won Death Penalty in Landmark Case
Noall Wootton, 65, the Utah County attorney who prosecuted the nation’s first person executed after the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty, died of cancer April 27 in Salt Lake City.
Wootton was in his first term when he prosecuted Gary Gilmore, who was executed by firing squad -- which Gilmore chose instead of hanging -- in January 1977, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty following a 10-year moratorium.
Gilmore was convicted for the 1976 slaying of Provo motel clerk Bennie Bushnell.
He was also charged with capital murder for killing Brigham Young University law student Max Jensen, a part-time gas station attendant, the night before the Bushnell murder.
Wootton, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and his law degree from the University of Utah, was Utah County attorney from 1974 to 1986.
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Kay Noble-Bell, a star female wrestler during the 1960s and ‘70s, died April 27 of stomach cancer, according to Boxwell Bros. Funeral Directors in Amarillo, Texas. She was 65.
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