Utah inmate set for firing squad execution to make final clemency appeal
By APFriday, June 11, 2010
Condemned Utah man to make final clemency appeal
DRAPER, Utah — Attorneys for a Utah inmate to be executed by firing squad next week are making a final appeal for clemency to the state parole board.
A two-day commutation hearing for Ronnie Lee Gardner is scheduled to end Friday.
Gardner wants the five-member Utah Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his death sentence to life in prison. On Thursday, Gardner told the board he has changed and wants to dedicate his life to helping at-risk youth avoid making the kind of mistakes that put him on death row.
Gardner is scheduled to die on June 18.
State attorneys object to commutation.
The board will announce its decision Monday.
The 49-year-old Gardner was sentenced to death for the 1985 fatal shooting of an attorney.
