Family of murder victim ask court to refrain from executing prisoner

Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, who recently caused controversy over his decision to be executed by firing squad, has received support from an unlikely ally. Family members of the victim, Michael Burdell, are due to testify in favour of life imprisonment during a requested clemency.

The Attorney General's Office in Utah has a week to approve the request for a clemency hearing.

Burdell’s family believe that he would not want to be the reason a man was killed. They are hoping that the board will grant Gardner a hearing so that they can argue that their late son’s wishes be considered in terms of punishment received by Gardner.

This latest arsenal accompanies the petition filed in Salt Lake City requesting the review of Gardner’s original trial in 1985 in which he was not asked to produce evidence over his troubled childhood because of a lack of state funds to undertake the investigation.

If Gardner’s attorney fails to argue, amongst a catalogue of absent opportunities to present a fair case, that the death penalty system in Utah is “arbitrary” then Ronnie Gardner may become the first person to be executed in 11 years.