Joseph Gardner was executed by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Melissa Ann McLaughlan
According to court documents Melissa Ann McLaughlan was picked up by Joseph Gardner and two accomplices who would bring the woman back to their home sexually assaulted her. Three others would show up and she would be sexually assaulted again. She would be tortured and shot multiple times in the face causing her death
Joseph Gardner would be arrested, convicted and sentence to death. Matthew Carl Mack (life) eligible for parole 30 years. Matthew Paul Williams (life) eligible for parole 30 years. Danny DeWayne McCall (6 years). Roger Williams (5 years). Craig Rice (accomplice) did not participate, but learned about crime, did nothing. Edna Lee Jenkins (7 years; suspended for time served). Indira Simmons (7 years; suspended for time served).
Joseph Gardner would be executed by lethal injection on December 5 2008
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When Was Joseph Gardner Executed
Joseph Gardner was executed on December 5 2008
Joseph Gardner Case
Joseph Gardner mouthed “Thank you, I’m OK” to a relative Friday as a lethal cocktail of chemicals flowed into his body, putting him to death for the slaying of a young North Charleston woman 16 years ago. Gardner, 38, was executed shortly after 6 p.m. for his role in the rape, torture and killing of 25-year-old Melissa “Missi” McLauchlin in December 1992. Gardner helped brutalize McLauchlin at a North Charleston home before he shot her five times in the face and dumped her body along a Dorchester County road.
Through his attorney, Gardner offered a written final statement apologizing to McLauchlin’s family for causing them such pain. He spent the day with his lawyer, Keir Weyble, but opted to forgo a last meal before he met his fate.
About 5:55 p.m., three media witnesses were led into the state’s capital punishment facility at Broad River Correctional Institute. Already seated in the small brick viewing room were law enforcement officers, a prosecutor, Weyble and Gardner’s cousin, Norman Ellis. All seats faced a wall with paneled windows. The room was silent but for the ticking of a clock. From behind a brown curtain, a muffled voice could be heard saying something that sounded like “I’m going to pray.”
The curtain opened at precisely 6 p.m., revealing Gardner in the adjoining room, tethered to a cushioned steel table with straps across his chest and outstretched arms. He wore a green jumpsuit with a white sheet pulled across the lower half of his body. An intravenous line snaked from a metal panel in the wall to his left arm. He raised his head and turned to the left, smiling as he spotted Ellis sitting in the second row. He raised his head slightly and mouthed, “Thank you, I’m OK. Thank you, I’m OK” several times. His eyes began to flutter after about two minutes and he strained to mouth more words. Finally, he let out a gasp of air and his head sunk back on the cushion. His mouth hung open and his eyes closed for the last time. Two men in gray coats stood by the table, their hands clasped, and waiting as the minutes passed. The IV seemed to jiggle for a minute or two and then stopped.
A man in a blue coat entered the room. He checked Gardner’s eyes with a flashlight, placed his fingers against the inmate’s throat and listened to his chest with a stethoscope. Moments later, a voice sounded over the intercom. “The sentence in the case of South Carolina V. Joseph Gardner was carried out at 6:15 p.m.”
Gardner became the 40th inmate put to death in South Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the third inmate executed in the Palmetto State this year.
The execution didn’t draw many protesters. Before the sentence was carried out, four of them paced along the sidewalk outside. Ron Kaz, a Charleston carpenter, said he was familiar with case but didn’t know Gardner. “I don’t believe the state has any business murdering people,” Kaz said.
McLauchlin’s parents, who live in Live Oak, Fla., chose not to attend the execution but were represented by North Charleston police Sgt. Ray Garrison, one of the lead investigators on the case. Her father, Clair McLauchlin, offered this statement: “It’s over for him but not for us. It will never be over for us.”
Their ordeal began on the night of Dec. 30, 1992, when Melissa McLauchlin got into a car with Gardner and other men after they spotted her walking along Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. They took her to a mobile home on Stall Road, where several men raped her. The men later forced McLauchlin to bathe, bound her with a blindfold and handcuffs and placed her on the floorboard of a car. Gardner shot her twice in the face after she freed herself from the handcuffs and tried to escape. He then shot her three more times and left her to die along the side of a road in Summerville.
Gardner, who was in the Navy at the time, fled from the area and remained a fugitive until his arrest in Philadelphia in October 1994. The case, which involved a white victim and five black suspects, stoked fears of racial unrest. The killing occurred just months after the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of four white police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Adding to local fears were revelations from investigators that Gardner and his co-defendants had decided to kill a white woman to avenge the mistreatment of blacks during slavery.
Of those charged, Joseph Gardner was the only person sentenced to die in the case. Two men received life sentences for murder, while two others received less than 10 years in prison as part of plea deals.
Gardner’s statement
“I would like to apologize to the family and loved ones of Melissa McLauchlin for taking her from them and causing them so much pain. I was 22 years old then, and I am 38 now. While I have always been sorry for what I did, the passage of time has allowed me to mature, reflect and experience spiritual growth in ways that were foreign to me as a young man. I have repented for what I have done, and I am very grateful to the many people who have prayed with me and for me over the years and in my final days. I deeply regret that my actions deprived Ms. McLauchlin of the chance to marry, have children and experience life with God. I have spent years praying for her, and I encourage all people of faith to do the same.”
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/dec/06/killer_gardner_executed64233/
