A convicted killer man has chosen to be executed by firing squad in the American state of Utah.

Barring a last-minute reprieve, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be strapped into a chair, a hood will be placed over his head and a small white target will be pinned over his heart on the day of his execution next week.

The 49-year-old will be executed by a team of five anonymous marksmen firing with a matched set of .30-caliber rifles. He is to be the third person executed by firing squad in Utah - or anywhere else in the US - since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Lethal injection became the state's default method of execution in 2004, but inmates condemned before then can still choose the firing squad.

In April, Gardner told a judge, "I would like the firing squad, please." Neither he nor his lawyers have said why.

Critics say the firing squad is barbaric.

"The firing squad is archaic, it's violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society," Bishop John C. Wester, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, said during an April protest. The diocese is part of a new coalition pushing for alternatives to capital punishment in Utah.

Even some death-penalty supporters would prefer not to see the method used. State Rep. Sheryl Allen, who pushed for the switch to lethal injection, said she's not happy to see the reprise of the firing squad because it shifts attention away from the victim to the convicted killer.

Gardner is to be executed June 18, shortly after midnight. He was convicted of capital murder 25 years ago for the 1985 fatal courthouse shooting of lawyer Michael Burdell during a botched escape attempt.

Gardner and his lawyers can continue to try and stop the execution up until midnight on June 17, Assistant Utah Attorney General Tom Brunker said.

No matter what happens in Gardner's case, America's last execution by firing squad could be years off. At least three of the other nine men on Utah's death row have said they want to die that way, too.

Source

We need the death Penalty in UK.

^ I agree..the only way we can get a death penalty in England is if we plot to kill the monarchy which is like...NEVER LOLL

You guys want death penalty seriously?

well insten of buliding new prisons with tax payers money they should just execute the people who are in for life.