WBRZ - Baton Rouge

Killer Ronnie Lee Gardner will be strapped into a chair with a hood placed over his head and a small white taget will be placed over his heart on June 18. Barring a last-minute reprieve, he will be shot by firing squad for killing a lawyer in 1985 during a botched escape attempt from a courthouse. He is the third to be executed by firing squad in Utah since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. Utah is the only state with that method in the U.S. Lethal injection is also an option of execution since Utah gives death-row prisoners a choice on how they die. Utah last used a firing squad to execute John Albert Taylor in 1996 for the rape and murder of an eleven-year girl.