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Utah murderer who selected firing squad as execution method to get (high-profile) commutation hearing

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this local story, which is headlined "Board of Pardons agrees to hold hearing for Ronnie Lee Gardner," spotlights why the selection of a firing squad by a Utah killer might have been a shrewd strategic decision.  Here are the basics: Less than a week before his scheduled execution by firing squad, Ronnie Lee Gardner will appear before the Board of Pardons to ask to have his sentence changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  A commutation hearing has been scheduled for Gardner, 49, for June 10 and 11, and filings in the case boil down to one question ? whether the death row inmate deserves any mercy. Gardner's attorneys believe his sentence is too harsh when compared to the others who have been executed in Utah, and the lawyers argue that the state should show "mercy" for Gardner, who they say is "no longer the same man who committed the crime for which he is sentenced to death...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).