**A convicted murderer in the US state of Utah has chosen to be executed by firing squad.**When given a choice between lethal injection or being shot, Ronnie Lee Gardner told the judge: “I would like the firing squad, please.”
Of the 35 US states that have the death penalty, Utah is the only one to give firing squads as an option.
Critics say the method is a relic from the state’s Wild West past and should be abolished.
Should the execution go ahead, it is likely to garner a media storm, says the BBC’s Madeleine Morris in Washington says.
The judge in Salt Lake City set the execution date for 18 June, but Gardner’s lawyer said he would appeal.
Gardner, 49, killed a lawyer in a shootout while trying to escape from a courthouse in 1985.
He would be only the third man to be killed by firing squad since the Supreme Court allowed states to have the death penalty in 1976.
Death row convicts in Utah were for decades allowed to choose their method of execution.
State legislators removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the standard method - but inmates sentenced before then still have a choice.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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