Lawyers try to halt firing squad execution

Gardner’s lawyers will argue that he was denied state funds to pay for specialists and investigators to provide mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his 1985 trial.

It’s unclear when Reese might rule on the stay. Lawyers made the same argument when asking Reese not to sign the appeal, and he rejected it.

The state opposes any delay of the case and will ask Reese not to put the execution on hold, Assistant Utah Attorney General Tom Brunker said yesterday.

Gardner, 49, was sentenced to death in 1985 for the Salt Lake City courthouse slaying of lawyer Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt.

Gardner can ask the state parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If Gardner is executed, he will be the first person put to death by firing squad since 1996.

Utah is the only state to use the firing squad.