Salt Lake City -- A Utah inmate set to die by firing squad early Friday has asked the state's governor to temporarily stay his execution. In a letter hand-delivered to Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday, attorneys for Ronnie Lee Gardner say the state parole board's commutation hearing was tainted. They want Gardner's life temporarily spared and the board reconvened....
Ronnie Lee GardnerSalt Lake City -- A Utah inmate set to die by firing squad early Friday has asked the state's governor to temporarily stay his execution.
In a letter hand-delivered to Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday, attorneys for Ronnie Lee Gardner say the state parole board's commutation hearing was tainted. They want Gardner's life temporarily spared and the board reconvened.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole denied Gardner's request to have his death sentenced reduced to life in prison Monday after a two-day hearing last week.
Governor's spokeswoman Angie Welling says the request for a stay is under review.
In this April 1985 picture, Ronnie Lee Gardner is restrained on the lawn at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City after the courthouse shooting death of attorney Michael Burdell during Gardner's failed escape attempt.Gardner's attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging his clemency hearing was biased because of a conflict of interest in the Utah attorney general's office, but a federal judge wouldn't grant a stay.
Gardner has a long criminal history. From The Associated Press:
He first came to the attention of authorities at age 2 as he was found walking alone on a street clad only in a diaper. At age 6 he became addicted to sniffing gasoline and glue. Harder drugs — LSD and heroin — followed by age 10. By then Gardner was tagging along with his stepfather as a lookout on robberies, according to court documents.
» How the firing squad execution would work [ABC News]
» Gardner execution evokes 1977 firing squad execution of Gary Gilmore [The New York Times]