Ronnie Lee Gardner paid the ultimate price for his crimes, choosing to be one of Utah’s last death row inmates to be executed by firing squad Friday. Only minutes before his sentence was carried out, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff tweeted he had given the go-ahead to proceed — an unnecessary and inappropriate use of technology.

Gardner made headlines by requesting firing squad as the method of his execution. Although this archaic punishment was banned by Utah in 2004, Gardner was sentenced before the option was removed and retained his right to choose. Shurtleff’s tweeted his approval at midnight, only 15 minutes before the sentence was carried out, taking advantage of publicity in a disgusting use of his position.

An execution should be a somber event, to give closure to the victims. The families of Michael Burdell and Melvyn Otterstrom, the two men murdered by Gardner, were entitled to see justice carried out in a respectful manner. Instead Shurtleff used Twitter and the controversy surrounding the execution to shamelessly promote himself, tweeting again to post a link to his live press conference after Gardner’s death.

As an elected official, Shurtleff should be held to a higher standard. There was no need to try to turn Gardner’s execution into a government-fueled multimedia extravaganza. A press conference after the event is enough. Beyond that, Shurtleff should have left the tweeting to the national news media and stayed out of the spotlight.