When Jurors Change Their Minds: The Ronnie Gardner Saga Goes On

[WSJ Law Blog]

The Ronnie Lee Gardner saga appears to have reached its final days. But an interesting thing has happened in the Gardner case in recent days: jurors who sentenced Gardner to death back in '85 have come forward to say 1) that they wouldn't have done so had they heard evidence of Gardner's troubled childhood and 2) they would have sentenced him to life in prison without parole rather than to death had that been an option back then.



Gardner was convicted of shooting and killing attorney Michael Burdell during a courthouse escape attempt back in 1985, since which time he’s resided on death row.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Gardner and his lawyers make an interesting argument to the Supreme Court, among others: that after languishing in prison for 25 years, the death penalty “so lacks retributive or deterrent value that it violates the Eighth Amendment.”

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