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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Attorneys for Utah death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner are asking a judge not to sign a warrant for his execution.
The motion filed Thursday in 3rd District Court says that putting Gardner to death after 25 years of court battles amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Gardner was sentenced to death for the April 1985 courthouse shooting death of attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt.
The Utah Attorney General's office is expected to request the execution warrant at a hearing April 23.
Once the warrant is signed, the execution must happen between 30 and 60 days later.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
