Gary Herbert on Crime

Authorize construction of new state prison

• creates the Prison Development Commission and provides for its membership, duties, and operation;
• provides for Division of Facilities Construction and Management oversight of the prison design and construction project;
• enacts a local option sales and use tax for a city or town that has a new state correctional facility;
• authorizes the issuance of bonds for the prison project;
• creates a restricted account and capital projects fund for the prison project;
• provides a process for the choice of a new prison site; and

No stay of execution in Ronnie Lee Gardner case

"It is looking very unlikely that Gardner will get a stay," said one activist. "We are eventually hoping to convince lawmakers that this law needs to be changed."

Gardner, 49, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1985 for the fatal courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell and wounding of a court bailiff during an escape attempt. He was in court to face charges in the shooting death of a local bartender and is scheduled to die by firing squad at 12:01 a.m. June 18.

Unless Gov. Gary Herbert issues a temporary stay of execution, Gardner wil be the state's first death row inmate executed in a decade. Herbert has said he does not intend to interfere in the case, which has drawn national attention on both sides of the issue.