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Thread: Joseph Martin Luther Gardner - South Carolina Execution - December 5, 2008

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    Joseph Martin Luther Gardner - South Carolina Execution - December 5, 2008


    Melissa Ann McLaughlan, 25




    Facts of the Crime:
    Convicted and sentenced to death in the December 31, 1992 rape-murder of Melissa Ann McLaughlan.

    Gardner was convicted of the murder of 25-year-old Melissa Ann McLaughlan, who was raped, tortured, shot five times in the face, and left to die by the side of a road. Gardner and some friends made a New Year's resolution to rape and kill a white woman as retribution for 400 years of oppression. McLaughlan had an argument with her fiancé at a nightclub, stormed out, and began to walk home. Police gave her a ride home, but she apparently set out on foot for another club. Three black men, Matthew Carl Mack, Matthew Williams, and Joseph Gardner pulled up alongside in a car and started a conversation. They returned with Missi to the trailer where the men lived and raped her.

    They put out the word within the trailer park that they had “captured a white woman,” and three other black men arrived and raped her. Two black women, girlfriends of some of the rapists, were present in another room of the trailer, but did nothing to stop the attack. They soaked her in bleach and hydrogen peroxide, and scrubbed her under the shower with a nylon brush. They forced her to scrub out her vagina with the same chemicals. The men handcuffed her, blindfolded her, and put a heavy coat over her head.

    They then took her to a car, and forced her down onto the floorboards in the back. After they had driven for some time, she managed to get out of the handcuffs and began to struggle. Joseph Gardner, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, reached over the seat, held back her head, and shot her twice in the face. The driver pulled over to the shoulder 14 miles outside Charleston, where Gardner shot her three more times in the face and once in the arm. The men then dumped her on the side of the road. Gardner, who was AWOL from the Navy, eluded police for nearly two years.

    Sentences: Joseph Martin Luther Gardner: death; Matthew Carl Mack: life with eligibility for parole after 30 years; Matthew Paul Williams: life with eligibility for parole after 30 years; Danny DeWayne McCall: six years; Roger Williams: five years; Edna Lee Jenkins: seven years, which were suspended for time served; Indira Simmons: seven years, which were suspended for time served.

    Victim: Melissa Ann McLaughlan

    Time of Death: 6:15 pm

    Manner of Execution: Lethal Injection

    Last Meal: None

    Final Words: Gardner left the following written 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."

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    December 5, 2008

    Killer Gardner executed

    COLUMBIA — 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, 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.

    http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2...executed64233/

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