Utah firing squad executes convicted killer (AP)

[Yahoo! News]

A death row inmate who had used a gun to fatally shoot two men suffered the same fate Friday morning as he was executed by a team of marksmen — the first time Utah used the firing squad to carry out a death sentence in 14 years.

A barrage of bullets tore into Ronnie Lee Gardner's chest where a target was pinned over his heart. Two minutes later an ashen Gardner, blood pooling in his dark blue jumpsuit, was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.

He was the third man to die by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.



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Convicted murderer, Ronnie Lee Gardner (pictured), has executed by a firing squad in Utah despite a flurry of last-minute bids for mercy, authorities have said. (AFP/HO/UTAH DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS/File)