According to A&E, two notable death row donors were Gary Gilmore and Margie Velma Barfield. The former was a well-known local thief who was ultimately sentenced to death for robbing and murdering two people in Utah. After his execution by firing squad in 1977, Gilmore’s pituitary gland, liver, and corneas were successfully removed per his request, while his kidneys were too heavily damaged by rifle fire.
Barfield was a woman put on death row for the poisoning of her husband, though she confessed to killing at least three other people as well (via All That’s Interesting). Before her execution in 1984 by lethal injection, her request to donate was approved (via The New York Times). Organ donations have also been carried out on still-living death row inmates such as Steven Shelton. Sentenced to death alongside his brother and cousin for a man’s murder, Steven donated a kidney to his mother after his sibling was found to be incompatible and later executed (via AP News).
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