Scores of somber death-penalty opponents gathered in a cold wind on the Utah Capitol steps Thursday night to share their distress that their state was executing Ronnie Lee Gardner.

And yet several speakers struck a note of hope:

"This is not the end of the movement," said Ralph Dellapiana, a defense attorney and one of the founders of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a new group that sponsored the protest. "This is the beginning."

Kent Hart, also a defense attorney, introduced himself with a reference to his religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The Mormon issue is kind of the elephant in the room," said Hart, who has met with eight of the nine men left on Utah's death row. Hart encouraged Latter-day Saints to reconsider the implications of capital punishment. The Salt Lake City-based church officially is neutral.

"I am not delusional. I'm not saying we're going to abolish the death penalty a week from now or next year," Hart said. "But I think we can do it. We'll do it in the name of people like Ronnie Lee Gardner."

The rally was at the Capitol, Dellapiana said, to pressure lawmakers to end capital punishment, as many other states have done.

Rep. Brad King, D-Salt Lake City, said he will push his colleagues on the hill to revisit Utah's use of capital punishment.

The death penalty, he said, has many flaws: It's immoral, violates constitutional protections against cruel punishment, sometimes kills the innocent, is not a deterrent, unfairly targets the poor and ethnic minorities and is more expensive than life imprisonment.

But the real reason to abolish capital punishment, he said, is personal. "As a citizen of Utah I am involved in a very small way with killing another person ... and so are you," King said.

"What we are doing at the Point of the Mountain is cold-blooded and it's pre-meditated."

Several members of Gardner's extended family attended the rally, but declined to comment.

Many in the crowd of about 150 protesters were young people carrying handmade signs such as "25 years can change a man! We are not God!" and "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders."

Candles were passed around, but few remained lit in the brisk wind.

Perhaps the most-poignant comments came from two people who were with condemned Utah men in the hours before their deaths: a legal studies professor from Utah Valley University and a former Catholic chaplain.

Sandra McGunigall-Smith studied death-row inmates at the prison for several years, and was with Joseph Parsons in the hours before he was executed in 1999.

If the state wants true and proportional punishment, she said, it should sentence killers to life without parole.

"The life-sentenced prisoners have no way to end their suffering," McGunigall-Smith added. "Prison itself becomes a cemetery, the cell a tomb."

Reyes G. Rodriguez, a Catholic chaplain at the prison for seven years, says he was with John Albert Taylor in the hours before he was shot by firing squad in 1996.

"A soon as they said, 'Fire,' I closed my eyes," Rodriguez said. "That was a very sad, sad event, to see a life just destroyed."

Those remaining at the end of the protest rally wandered into Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's conference room, where he had a press conference minutes after learning Gardner was dead.

Nathan Walker, a West Jordan teenager, said he and his friend wanted to stay until the execution was over. "We don't think it's right for a human being to kill another human being," said Walker, who carried a sign with the words: "25 years can change a man! We are not God!!"

Jonathan Kendall, in Utah visiting family, said he cried when he learned Utah had carried out the execution. He wasn't happy to hear Shurtleff introduce his deputies, who had helped the state argue make the case that higher courts should reject Gardner's appeals.

"I felt some disgust that there was a sense of pride in this. I felt there should be a sense of shame," said Kendall, who teaches government in London.

"He said it's about justice. It's not about justice at this point and time," said Kendall, who carried a sign urging prayers for the victims' and Gardner's families. " It's revenge."

At a protest near the prison, Salt Lake City resident Kristin Powers arrived shortly after 11 p.m. with a handwritten sign reading, "Who would Jesus execute?"

Ron Belnap, a retired priest from All Saints Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, said he "felt like this was a place for me to be."

"Murder is wrong, he said. "That is true regardless of whether you are a murderer or a government that takes the life of a murderer."

Dozens of Gardner's family members, mingling with the protesters, carried red and white balloons with messages written on them for the condemned killer. They planned to release the balloons at the time of his death.

Not far away were family members of Gardner's victims.

"I had an abusive upbringing. I know people who have done drugs, but we've never killed anyone," said Kearns resident Wayne Hunting while standing with family members of bailiff Nick Kirk, who was wounded in Gardner's 1985 escape attempt. "It's all about taking responsibility for our actions."

Earlier Thursday evening, prayers for Gardner, his victims, their families and his executioners were sent up by about 125 people who gathered at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Salt Lake City.

"Violence breeds violence," said the Rev. David Henry, interim pastor at First Baptist Church. He urged others to pray that the state soon ends capital punishment.

"It doesn't work," Henry said. "It's ineffective, and it's brutalizing all of us."

Michael Bulson, a deacon at St. Andrew Catholic Parish in Riverton and an attorney, said he learned a lesson from the father of a woman killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

"Hate and revenge will not bring about the healing that is needed," Bulson said.

Ogden resident Victoria Sethunya, a native of Lesotho, said she was stunned to learn that Utah still executes killers.

"This is a sacred place," she said. "I grew up thinking only God takes life."

Sandy resident Diana Mafi, a born-again Christian, said she attended the vigil because she cannot share her dismay over capital punishment with family or friends.

"I feel bad about the people who think they can feel better killing another person."

Matthew D. LaPlante and Sheena McFarland contributed to this story.