ARBITRARINESS: South Carolina Frees Man Who Faced Execution

Joseph Ard, who spent 11 years on South Carolina​’s death row and a total of 19 years in con­fine­ment, was freed from prison on July 31. Ard was sen­tenced to death for the 1993 shoot­ing of his preg­nant girl­friend. After his con­vic­tion, new lawyers unearthed evi­dence that cor­rob­o­rat­ed Ard’s claim that the shoot­ing was acci­den­tal, result­ing from a strug­gle with his girl­friend over a gun. Ard was grant­ed a re-tri­al in 2007, and his lawyers pre­sent­ed sci­en­tif­ic tes­ti­mo­ny that his girl­friend had gun­shot residue on her hands, sup­port­ing Ard’s account of a strug­gle. The jury found Ard guilty of invol­un­tary manslaugh­ter, and the judge sen­tenced him to time served. Aimee Zmroczek, one of Ard’s lawyers, said, ​“The state Supreme Court once upheld his death sen­tence, so if that deci­sion hadn’t been over­turned, he might have been put to death by now.” Ard was the first per­son in South Carolina to be sen­tenced to death for mur­der involv­ing an unborn child. The pros­e­cu­tion did not seek the death penal­ty in the re-trial.

(J. Monk, ​“Inmate goes from Death Row to free­dom,” The State, July 31, 2012). See Arbitrariness. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Arbitrariness.