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| Jody Ard |
LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WIS) - A man who served 11 years on death row after being convicted of killing his girlfriend and their unborn child in 1993 has walked free after a jury decided last week that he did not intentionally kill them.
Joseph "Jody" Ard was released from the Lexington County Detention Center shortly before 6 p.m.
Ard found out he would be released from prison several hours ago. He had spent the last 7 years awaiting a retrial in the death of 17-year-old Madalyn Coffey and the 35-week-old fetus she was carrying.
Prosecutors convinced the jury that Ard shot Coffey intentionally. The fetus, according to the prosecution, died from lack of oxygen. Ard, on the other, hand, said that the .44 caliber gun went off accidentally during a struggle. There were no witnesses to the shooting.
Ard became the first South Carolinian to be sentenced to death for killing a fetus. Later that year, the state Supreme Court upheld that decision.
A new defense team continued working for Ard after the conviction. They found what they believed was a key piece of evidence that was not included in the first trial.
"They did it," Ard said in praise of his attorneys. "They fought for me hard and they cleared my name."
They brought the new evidence forward during a re-trial this month. The defense's core argument was that Coffey had gun residue on her hand, which pointed to the defense's theory that Coffey and Ard were fighting for the gun when it accidentally fired.
The prosecution chose not to seek the death penalty in this trial.
Source: WMBF News, August 1, 2012
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