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UTAH (USA): GARDNER CHOOSES DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD
April 23, 2010: 3rd District Judge Robin Reese has signed the death warrant for Ronnie Lee Gardner, who choose to die by firing squad. Gardner, 49, white, was sentenced to death in 1985 after he was convicted of killing attorney Michael Burdell during a failed courthouse escape attempt on April 2, 1985. Gardner will be executed on June 18 by marksmen armed with .30 rifles, aiming at a paper target pinned over his heart. Utah is the only state in the US to offer death row inmates the choice of a firing squad rather than lethal injection. It is an option that at least 4 prisoners have indicated that they will take, guaranteeing the state plenty of negative publicity if it proceeds with their executions. The last time that a firing squad was used in Utah was in 1996 at the request of John Albert Taylor. The only other firing squad execution in Utah since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the US in 1976 was that of Gary Gilmore in 1977. In the 35 States that have the death penalty, the method used is by lethal injection. Utah is the only state in the US to offer death row inmates the choice of a firing squad rather than lethal injection. Hanging is still allowed in New Hampshire and Washington State. It was last used in the US in 1996 when Delaware hanged Bill Bailey. (source: Desert News, The Times, Associated Press, KSL News, 23/04/2010)
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