US convict chooses firing squad execution

The US state of Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed to the inmate’s request, renewing…

The US state of Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed to the inmate’s request, renewing a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.

Ronnie Lee Gardner (49) was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles - a rarely used method of execution.

"I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese after hearing his avenues for appeal appear to be exhausted.

Gardner was sentenced to death for killing an attorney 25 years ago during a failed escape attempt and shootout.

Defence attorney Andrew Parnes said he plans to quickly seek a stay of execution and appeal Reese's ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.

It's unclear if a stay would be granted, but an appeal, once received, would be promptly reviewed because of the nature of the case, Utah State Courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said.

Gardner has seven days to ask Utah's Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole.

This is the fourth time a judge signed a warrant for Gardner's execution. Mr Parnes said it seems his client's death may be "closer than ever before".

"I don't think it was a shock or a surprise, and he's coming to grips with that," Mr Parnes said without
explaining Gardner's choice of firing squad.

"It's his personal choice," he said. "He did that in 1985 and he's done it again."

Gardner would be Utah's first execution since 1999 and the third man to be killed by a firing squad in the state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976: Gary Gilmore on January 17th, 1977 - after famously uttering the last words, "Let's do it", and John Albert Taylor on January 26th, 1996.

Of the 35 states with the death penalty on the books, Utah is the only one to still use the firing squad as a method of execution.

Oklahoma is the only other state that considers a firing squad an acceptable option, but by law would only use it if lethal injection was deemed unconstitutional. The state has never used the method.

In an appeal, Mr Parnes would likely reiterate arguments made to Mr Reese that Gardner had been denied state funds to pay for experts and investigators who could have provided mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his case.

The hearing was conducted amid heavy security with several officers standing guard around the shackled Gardner, who wore an orange jumpsuit and white shoes.

He traded pleasantries with Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who asked Gardner how he was doing. "Good, considering the circumstances," Gardner replied.

About 20 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated in the courthouse rotunda before the hearing.

"The firing squad is archaic, it's violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society," said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah's Roman Catholic Diocese.

Gardner was convicted of the fatal shooting death of Utah attorney Michael J. Burdell during an escape attempt and shootout at the old Metropolitan Hall of Justice in downtown Salt Lake
City on April 2nd, 1985.

AP