SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah is scheduled to execute a convicted
killer by firing squad on June 18 after a judge signed a warrant
for his execution.
State court Judge Robin Reese signed the warrant Friday morning
in a Salt Lake City courtroom.
The 49-year-old Gardner has been on Utah's death row for 25
years. After Reese said Gardner's avenues for appeal are exhausted
and that he would sign the warrant, Gardner said "I would like the
firing squad, please."
Gardner would be the first death row inmate executed since
Joseph Mitchell Parsons died by lethal injection in 1999.
Gardner was sentenced to death in 1985 for the Salt Lake City
courthouse slaying of attorney Michael Burdell during a failed
escape attempt.
Gardner's attorney says an appeal is planned.

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