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Victim's Family Aims to Block Killer's Execution

Kin: Slain lawyer 'didn't support death penalty'

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted May 6, 2010 3:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – A murder victim's loved ones are fighting to spare the life of the man who killed him. Ronnie Lee Gardner is due to die by firing squad in Utah next month for attorney Michael Burdell's murder, but the victim's father, former girlfriend, and close friend will testify on the killer's behalf at his commutation hearing. Gardner is seeking to have his sentence commuted to life without parole, and Burdell's loved ones will tell the hearing that the lawyer wouldn't have wanted Gardner to die.

"Michael didn't believe in capital punishment. He didn't believe in eye for an eye, a life for a life," Donna Nu, Burdell's girlfriend at the time of his murder, told ABC News. "Michael would have done the same for me had the situation been reversed." Burdell, a pacifist who served in Vietnam but refused to carry a gun, "would not want to be the reason that Ronnie Lee is executed," she said.

Donna Nu talks to reporters after a judge set an execution date last month for Ronnie Lee Gardner at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.
Donna Nu talks to reporters after a judge set an execution date last month for Ronnie Lee Gardner at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.   (AP Photo/George Frey)
Convicted murderer Ronnie Gardner, center, sits with his defense lawyer  Andrew Parnes  in Judge Robin Reese's courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Convicted murderer Ronnie Gardner, center, sits with his defense lawyer Andrew Parnes in Judge Robin Reese's courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.   (AP Photo/Francisco Kjolseth, Pool)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
danwinters
May 7, 2010 11:35 PM CDT
nice gesture coming from the family but this man has to die.maybe the family wants to pick up the bill for the rest of his life incarceration.the state has wasted enough time and money on this piece of shit .throw down for a few bullets and let them fly. let the killer be a martyr and get his attention .he is thinking ill show them..ill make them shoot me. they already want to buddy along with a shitload of us out here .kill him
timeandagain
May 7, 2010 7:37 PM CDT
That would be too bad. I really liked the idea of this idiot's head exploding with a gunshot...
BlueAyez
May 7, 2010 4:39 AM CDT
He should live a very long life in prison and be aware every day of what he did.

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