DRAPER, Utah (AP) - Utah prison officials say a firing squad has
executed convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner.
      The 49-year-old Gardner was shot by a team of five anonymous
marksmen with a matched set of .30-caliber rifles early Friday.
Gardner, who had a white target pinned to his chest and was
strapped to a chair, was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m.
      Gardner is the first person to be executed by a firing squad in
the United States in 14 years.
      Gardner was sentenced to death for a 1985 capital murder
conviction stemming from the fatal courthouse shooting of attorney
Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt. He was at the Salt
Lake City court facing a 1984 murder charge in the shooting death
of a bartender.