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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Another appeal for Ronnie Lee Gardner.
The notorious killer was convicted of shooting a lawyer to death in 1985 during a failed courthouse escape. But the 40-year old's lawyer says the jury was never instructed on what constitutes first-degree murder.
If they had to prove Gardner had intent to kill, he might have been convicted on a lesser charge.
Gardner's defense attorney asked the Utah Supreme Court to either order a new trial in state court or substitute Gardner's conviction for a second degree felony which doesn't carry the death penalty.
Gardner was sentenced to death for shooting the lawyer while trying to escape from a courthouse where he was for an unrelated murder.
He's serving a life sentence for that murder.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
