SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is one step closer to its first death row execution in 10 years.
An application for a death warrant was filed Wednesday by the Utah Attorney General's Office asking a state judge to order the execution of death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner.
The attorney general's office asked for the warrant as soon as it confirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Gardner's most recent petition, said assistant attorney general Tom Brunker.
Gardner, 48, was sentenced to die for shooting and killing attorney Michael Burdell and severely wounding Salt Lake County sheriff's bailiff George Kirk while trying to escape the former Salt Lake County courthouse in 1985.
Authorities said Gardner got the gun from his girlfriend, who was able to smuggle it into the poorly secured old courthouse. Gardner was in court that day facing charges stemming from a 1984 robbery and shooting death of Melvyn John Otterstrom.
A jury convicted Gardner of capital murder in the slaying of Burdell and sentenced him to die in 1985. He was also sentenced to a term of five years to life for killing Otterstrom.
Gardner has made numerous attempts to appeal the conviction, starting as early as 1989. The case has made its way through the Utah federal and Supreme Court systems, before it was again rejected by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in June. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Gardner's petition a number of times, with the most recent refusal being ordered on Monday, Brunker said.
Gardner has based his appeals on various claims, including ineffective counsel, improper instructions given to the jury, the use of a testimony by someone who was hypnotized and the claim that the shooting was unintentional.
At this point, Brunker said Gardner has "exhausted his judicial process." Brunker said state prosecutors will often file the applications when there is a gap in a defendant's court proceedings, but the death warrants are often stayed when an appeal is filed that leads the warrant to expire.
Brunker said there will now be a hearing before a state judge who will set a concrete date for the execution, which must take place more than 30 days but less than 60 days after the hearing.
Brunker said the attorney general's office expects the hearing to take place within the next 30 days. It's unclear which judge will preside over the hearing because none of the current judges have been involved in Gardner's case.
Gardner's attorney, Andrew Parnes, confirmed that his client has no more appeal options with the courts. Gardner petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court with a direct appeal, an appeal from his state conviction and an appeal from his failed petition in the federal court system.
"Basically, at this point, we just want to make sure that there is an execution carried out according to the Constitution of the state of Utah and of the United States," Parnes said. "That's our concern at this point. If the state is going to go ahead with the execution, then we want to see that it is done constitutionally."
The last person executed in Utah was Joseph Mitchell Parsons, who died by lethal injection on Oct. 15, 1999. Utah has executed six men since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com