John D. Arnold

Case overview

John D. Arnold was executed by lethal injection in South Carolina on March 7, 1998. Arnold was convicted of killing Betty Gardner.

People

• John D. Arnold — defendant; cousin of John Plath
• John Plath — co-defendant; cousin of John Arnold
• Betty Gardner — victim; 33 years old
• Cindy Sheets — female companion; led police to Gardner's body; testified against Arnold and Plath under a grant of immunity
• John Plath’s girlfriend (eleven-year-old) — participant; identified in the record as an eleven-year-old
• Arnold’s girlfriend (seventeen-year-old) — participant; identified in the record as a seventeen-year-old
• Carol Ullman — identified as the other girlfriend in the group
• Parker Evatt — Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections

Timeline

• February 6, 1979 — Arnold and Plath were convicted after a jury trial.
• January 1984 — South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Arnold’s death sentence.
• November 1984 — Arnold filed an application for post-conviction relief in the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas.
• 1988 — The United States Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari and remanded for reconsideration of the implied malice instruction.
• 1990 — The court denied Arnold’s motions to amend the application as meritless or untimely following another hearing.
• 1993 — The United States Supreme Court denied another petition for writ of certiorari.
• August 31, 1993 — Arnold presented a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.
• September 29, 1995 — The United States District Judge entered an order adopting the magistrate judge’s findings and granting the State’s motion for summary judgment.
• March 7, 1998 — Arnold was executed by lethal injection in South Carolina.

The offence

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1978, cousins John Arnold and John Plath, who were in their early twenties, and their respective eleven-year-old and seventeen-year-old girlfriends (Carol Ullman and Cindy Sheets) borrowed a friend’s car and went looking for wild mushrooms. During their search they encountered farm worker Betty Gardner as she walked along the side of the road.

Gardner hitchhiked a ride with the two couples. The group took her to her brother’s home, and Gardner asked whether the group would take her to work, but they refused and drove off. Testimony indicated Arnold suggested they go back and kill Gardner because he “didn’t like niggers.” The group then went back, picked Gardner up, and took her to a remote wooded area near a garbage dump.

When Gardner attempted to leave, Arnold told her she was not going anywhere, kicked her in the side, and knocked her down. Gardner was alternately sexually assaulted and beaten during the assault, including being urinated on. The record described Gardner being stomped on, beaten with a belt, hit with a jagged bottle, stabbed with a knife, and choked with a garden hose. The record further stated that all four persons at one time or another participated in physically assaulting Gardner.

The record also indicated Arnold dragged Gardner into the woods to complete her murder and did so by strangling her with the garden hose, getting leverage by putting his foot on her neck. Afterward, Arnold carved “KKK” into Gardner’s body in an attempt to mislead law enforcement.

Investigation and victim recovery

Gardner’s body was not found until Sheets’ involvement came to light. Sheets provided law enforcement with the location of Gardner’s decomposed remains.

Charges and trial

Arnold and Plath were indicted in the Beaufort County Court of General Sessions on charges of murder and kidnapping.

After a jury trial, they were convicted on February 6, 1979. The record stated that Arnold and Plath were both sentenced to death by electrocution.

At the time of the resentencing described in the record, a new jury found Arnold guilty of committing the murder while in the commission of kidnapping and recommended the death penalty.

Sentencing

Both defendants were sentenced to death by electrocution.

The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Arnold’s conviction but remanded the case for resentencing because of improper prosecutorial argument. At the resentencing trial, the new jury found Arnold guilty of committing the murder while in the commission of kidnapping and recommended the death penalty.

In January 1984, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Arnold’s death sentence.

Appeals and post-conviction proceedings

Arnold appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which affirmed the conviction but remanded for resentencing due to improper prosecutorial argument. After resentencing, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence in January 1984.

The United States Supreme Court subsequently denied Arnold’s petition for writ of certiorari, with two Justices dissenting based on Arnold’s Sixth Amendment claim regarding the jury view of the crime scene.

Arnold filed an application for post-conviction relief in the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas in November 1984. An evidentiary hearing resulted in an order denying his application.

Arnold then filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which denied it.

In 1988, the United States Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari and remanded the case to the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas for reconsideration on the issue of the trial court’s implied malice instruction. On remand, the court denied the application for post-conviction relief, holding that the malice instruction did not include an impermissible presumption, or alternatively, any error was harmless.

Arnold made subsequent motions to amend his application. Following another hearing in 1990, the court denied the motions as meritless or untimely.

Arnold appealed the denial of post-conviction relief to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which concluded that under United States Supreme Court precedent the implied malice instruction was harmless error.

The United States Supreme Court denied another petition for writ of certiorari in 1993.

Federal habeas proceedings

On August 31, 1993, Arnold presented a petition for writ of habeas corpus by a person in state custody in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

The United States Magistrate Judge recommended that the district court deny the petition after hearing oral arguments on the petition and all intervening motions. After objections, the United States District Judge entered an order filed September 29, 1995, adopting the magistrate judge’s findings and granting the State’s motion for summary judgment. Arnold appealed.

Other details

The record also stated that Plath is expected to be executed in late spring or early summer 1998.