A firing squad executed a convicted killer today, US prison officials said.

Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was shot dead in Utah by a team of five anonymous marksmen with a matched set of .30-calibre rifles. One of the guns had blank bullets but the marksmen did not know which one it was.

Gardner, who had a white target pinned to his chest and was strapped to a chair, was pronounced dead at 8.20 am

He was the first person to be executed by firing squad in the US in 14 years.

Gardner was sentenced to death for the 1985 courthouse shooting of lawyer Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt. He was at the Salt Lake City court facing a 1984 murder charge over the shooting death of a barman.

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