Lexington Man to Walk Free After 11 Years on Death Row
Joseph Lee Ard, originally convicted of killing his girlfriend and unborn baby, will walk free after 19 years in jail and 11 years on death row.
LEXINGTON, SC -- Joseph Lee Ard, a man who spent 11 years on death row after being convicted of killing his girlfriend and their unborn child, will be released from prison this week, according to multiple news reports.
A jury decided last week that Ard did not intentionally kill his girlfriend, 17-year-old Madalyn Coffey, and their baby in 1993, according to a report from WIS.
The jury found Ard guilty of involuntary manslaughter, according to a report in The State. The judge sentenced him to time served, meaning he'll be free after he's processed through the state prison system.
Ard says that he didn't intentionally kill Coffey; the gun went off during a struggle. Ard said Coffey was threatening to kill herself, according to court documents. When he tried to pull the gun away, he said, it went off.
New evidence was presented during Ard's retrial that supported his story, according to The State, including scientific evidence of gunshot residue on Coffey's hands.
Ard was originally convicted of two counts of murder in 1996 and sentenced to death row.
The state Supreme Court granted him a new trial in 2007. The prosecution chose not to seek the death penalty in Ard's retrial.
dan crabtree
5:16 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
If the liberal left freaks of nature have not invaded your state yet...give them time as there working on all former republican states..
grady cox
5:44 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
what does that have to do with the man's innocence?
lita
6:53 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Yeah, those stupid liberals. What is wrong with them, not wanting to see the innocent punished with imprisonment or put to death? Thank heaven we have foreward thinkers like you to who favor conviction of anyone in order to close a case instead of seeking out the actual perpetrator because it might take more time or might be a little too tough to go the required extra mile.
RICK BOOTH
1:28 am on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The governor of Texas hurries up and kills them when evidence is found to set them free. Perry's done it, check out the last one. He refused to look at DNAevidence that would have cleared him. It cost's the state a lot of money for wrongful imprisonment, like $80,000 a year
Berlena Dean
5:53 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Female Americans kill unborn babies everyday, they are not in jail !
TB Player
6:06 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Abortion is legal and fought for, but trying to save a life that ends in tragedy, is punishable by prison time. She was going to kill herself and her unborn child. If he allowed that to happen, he remains free, but scorned for not trying. He tries, she dies, he goes to prison. Yeah... THAT was Justice....
Dave Robbins
6:38 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
It is time for the church to take another look at their teachings. Abortion is so unimportant it is not even mentioned in the Bible. According to the Bible, life does NOT begin at conception. On almost the very first page, in Genesis, it says that when Adam was fully formed, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” People who claim to follow the Bible can take some obscure verse and twist it however they want, but the Bible clearly says it is only after taking that first breath after birth, that one becomes a human.
Susan Voysest
7:45 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
I don't agree with your view about when life begins. Having given birth to three beautiful children I knew I had life growing inside of me at about 12 - 14 weeks when I could feel their movements inside of me. It is easy for a man to say it is not a life until full term birth, but any women who has had a baby growing inside of them knows it starts long before that. Have you ever seen a sonogram of an 18 week fetus? Well I have and each and everyone of my children were clearly a human being! I watch as they wiggled aground and followed the pressure of the scope on the outside of my belly and watch them suck their thumbs. It clearly looked like and felt like life to me!!
Haladhara
9:02 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Dave, your repeated comments are demoniac for they blatantly misrepresent the truth. First of all, abortion is cited in Exodus 21:22-23 as an offense eligible for "life for life" punishment. Secondly, Adam was not born through pregnancy and therefore he does not serve as an example for others to follow. GOD made Adam's body in His image without the help of an ordinary mother, and by breathing into it, Adam's body became alive because the soul entered in this way. In ordinary pregnancy the soul passes from the father to the mother by way of the sperm that establishes an embodied person when it unites with an ovum at conception. Thereafter the fetus breathes through the umbilical cord that provides it oxygen long before leaving the womb. Now stop pandering to the ignorant.
Karen Jordan
10:03 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Thank you for informing people of that, no one ever thinks what life would be like for a baby to go home with a mother who didnt want it? what will happen to that baby, and do they care? nope,, just as long as they get what they want,, no thought whatsoever for the innocent life forced upon this earth
Archie too
11:10 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wow!!! Did you just decide to skip the part about God creating Adam in His image from clay? No where in that passage does it mention procreation. When a cell divides.....LIFE begins.
gjc
8:21 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
You all missed the point. This happened in SC, another redneck state. Did you really expect a SC jury to bring back anything but the death penalty? Every redneck state does the same thing. One track minds.
LCJ182
8:55 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
What the hell do any of these comments have to do with the fact that Jody Ard is getting out of prison? He killed his girlfriend and his unborn baby. He shot Madalyn in the head and let his baby die. It was simple. The jury had to find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter because, an ONLY because, of the way the law read and the evidence. They thought he murdered her but because of the evidence and the law their hands were tied. Same thing that happened when OJ and Casey Anthony were found not guilty. That has nothing at all to do with politics, abortion or the death penalty. The death penalty wasn't even on the table.
joe smith
9:44 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Good now overturn Darlie Routier
MiMi
9:51 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
https://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-nc-grant-clemency-petition-for-janet-danahey?utm_campaign=share_button_mobile&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=24169757
North Carolina Governor will also be deciding whether or not to grand clemency to Janet Danahey....who has been in prison for over 10 years...this is an interesting story....as there was no trial and no plea deal...it involved 3 young women with only Janet being charged under the NC Murder Felony Law....when under the law that other 2 young women could have also been charged....WAS THIS FAIR AND JUST or DID THE TIME REALLY FIT THE CRIME?????????????????????? I hope you will read about this and support JANET and those of us who feel she has served enough time for an accident which turned deadly....there is more to this story than anyone knows or will probably ever know....there were 2 against 1 and Janet was the odd woman OUT....or rather IN FOR LIFE....for a STUPID PRANK that was meant only to scare someone....
Dee Gilbert
10:18 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
while I understand a woman's right to decide what she wants to do with her body, I don't think abortion should be used simply because it's inconvenient for someone to have a baby at a particular time. I know of instances of aborted babies born alive and the doctor killing that infant with a surgical knife jabbed into the base of the skull because the mother didn't want it. This story was told to me by an attending nurse. And why is it that a person who kills a pregnant woman, no matter how many months she is pregnant, is accused of killing two people? Obviously that infant is considered a human being. You can't have it both ways.
ERIC V WIZ
10:24 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
was the pathetic jury the same one that let OJ go? this asshole murdered his girfriend and baby and he's getting away with it he should be 6 feet under
CC A
11:59 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Dave Robbins....so are you saying that a fetus is NOT breathing while in the womb??? And that it is NOT actually alive??? Because if it breathes, it IS alive!!
CC A
12:55 am on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
ERIC V. WIZ I agree with you. He murdered his gf & baby & should NOT get away with that fact! I I believe God should determine our death, however he should Not be released from prison.