Victim's Father Wants Killer Spared From Firing Squad
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Hugh Collins
AOL News
(May 6) -- A convicted murderer in Utah trying to beat his sentence of death by firing squad is getting help from his victim's father and friends.

Ronnie Lee Gardner has asked the state's Board of Pardons and Parole for a commutation hearing to halt his execution, which is scheduled for June 18, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Gardner plans to have the father and former girlfriend of Michael Burdell, the man he killed in 1985, testify on his behalf, as well as a friend of Burdell's.

"Michael would not want to be the reason that Ronnie Lee is executed," Donna Nu, Burdell's girlfriend at the time of his murder, told ABC News. "Michael didn't believe in capital punishment. He didn't believe in an eye for an eye, a life for a life."

Donna Nu talks to reporters on April 23, 2010, after a judge set an execution date for Ronnie Lee Gardner.
George Frey, AP
Donna Nu, here in April, was dating Michael Burdell when Ronnie Lee Gardner killed him in 1985. She said Gardner shouldn't be executed for the crime. "Michael didn't believe in capital punishment. He didn't believe in an eye for an eye, a life for a life."
Nu told ABC that Burdell was a pacifist and refused to carry a gun while serving in the Army in Vietnam.

Gardner killed Burdell while trying to escape from a Salt Lake City courthouse on April 2, 1985, according to the Tribune. He was captured on the courthouse lawn after killing Burdell and wounding a bailiff.

Gardner was at the courthouse for a hearing regarding the robbery and killing of Melvyn John Otterstrom, who was shot in the face in a tavern in Salt Lake City. Gardner was sentenced to life in jail for that killing.

Gardner wants the board to reduce his sentence for killing Burdell from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole, ABC reported. The Utah attorney general's office has seven days to respond to Gardner's request.

He has also filed a petition to halt the execution with a Salt Lake City court, arguing that to execute him 25 years after his crime would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Gardner also argues that defense attorneys at his 1985 trial did not offer evidence of his troubled childhood.

Board spokesman Jim Hatch said the board can grant or deny Gardner a hearing on the case's merits.
Filed under: Nation, Crime

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I hope they listen to the victim's family and friends because killing him doesn't give any justice.

The dead person cannot benefit from the death and the survivors don't want a death on their conscience.

These are an example of mentally healthy people knowing that vengeance doesn't do any good for anyone. Loss of more life is never a good answer.

My thoughts are with these people and I hope they are heard and considered as valid in this issue.

If he can forgive ..then I suppose we should too.

So this guy killed two people, uses the "troubled childhood" as an excuse for his actions, and wants the victims family to help him beat the death penalty??

I dont think so!!...execute his azz right now, us taxpayers are sick and tired of funding his life in prison. And yes, excuting him does indeed solve a problem, because a killer who is killed, will never kill again.

All you whiney azz liberals would sacrifice your own unborn babies to save a dirtbag who, if given the chance, would turn around and cut your own throats.
You have the lamest excuses for wanting to save the life of the scumbags of the earth.

This post is troubling at so many levels.



I am not a liberal so that doesn't apply to me.

It costs more to execute than house them for life.

Killing them doesn't do anyone any justice.

Death penalty supporters are no different than the "criminal" murderers, they both think murder solves things. My opinion of course.

The family of the victim is fighting to have the death penalty taken off the man. Our laws should abide by their wishes.

all you.....who are you talking to? Your hardly in a position to say what others should or should not do.

I agree that the modern liberal's arguments are weak and emotional. The better line of argumentation is that since the State does not own us, and we haven't signed any contract with the State, it has no right to police us-much less imprison or kill us.

That's so cool...Utah still does the execution by firing squad, but I thought it had to be requested? Still, that is one hell of a death penalty.

sad,, on so many levels.. I hope they give him life , literally, this time .

I AM emotional...I am NOT weak, I assure you.

I think he did request it.

As far as the family and this guy, so long as its life, and he's never let out, then I suppose it might work. I really don't believe it, but hey, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt.

If, however, he does get out, and does something like this again, then he AND that family need to be executed. I wonder if they become ultimately responsible for what he does, knowing that he killed previously, if it might change their minds. After all, their feeling that the death penalty is wrong, might one day cause the death of someone else, if he happens to get out.

I disagree with this thinking only because we are talking about human life. By this same standard, those who believe in death penalty would be responsible for the wrongful imprisonment of the innocent and should be required to serve their time instead.

The system is flawed and will make mistakes, I dont hold peoples' opinions about the value of ALL life to be responsible for those mistakes. I think that if this man were to get back out,, those who should be held responsible, are the ones with the JOB of keeping him in,, not those who wanted to spare his life.

Sure, give him life. Just house him with the bloods or cripts.

This is such a cheap, shoddy, tawdry, tasteless, emotion-drenched, public-relations-grabbing, tacky, and shameless ploy by the perp that it ain't funny. That said, if the victim's family agrees with it, he very well may avoid paying the price he SHOULD pay for his crime. Personally, I wouldn't be so generous, but the decision is theirs. If he can convince them he shouldn't die, that's between them. If he DOES beat the hangman, tho', he needs to be placed in GENERAL POPULATION without supervision ... and I kinda like the idea of him 'splainin' to the Bloods, Crips, and MS-13 why he din't fry ... maybe they could have a nice 'conversation' in the 'weight room' ... or when the bunks were circled ...

Exactly.