Murder of Betty Gardner

All of the perpetrators were captured at a later date. Sheets and Ullman were granted immunity after they turned state's evidence and testified against Arnold and Plath; who were ultimately convicted and sentenced to death. Both were executed in 1998 by lethal injection a few months apart. The case was notable as it marked a rare occasion in which two white people were executed for murdering a single black victim.

On March 6, 1998, Arnold was executed via lethal injection at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. He was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. He proclaimed his innocence to the very end and issued a final statement saying, "The judicial system has had my neck under its heel. I leave this world with my identity fully intact, my dignity untouched, my spirit sound and whole."

On July 10, 1998, Plath was also executed via lethal injection at Broad River Correctional Institution. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. In his final handwritten statement, he denied killing Gardner. Plath became a Christian while in prison and quoted Bible verses in the execution chamber. While on death row, Plath was adopted by a 70-year-old woman. He also received a religious letter from convicted murderer and Manson Family member Tex Watson.

In October 1981, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld Arnold and Plath's convictions, however, due to prosecutorial error, the case was remanded for resentencing. In May 1982, both men were sentenced to death again.

In February 1979, Arnold and Plath were tried for the murder of Gardner in Beaufort County. State prosecutors announced they intended to seek the death penalty against both Arnold and Plath. The veteran prosecutor called the crime, "the most terrible, inhuman, degrading and nauseating case" he had ever seen. Sheets and Ullman testified against Arnold and Plath, with their stories about the events of the crime being almost identical. Sheets claimed Arnold did not like black people and the murder was found to be a racially-motivated crime. Ullman also testified that it was Arnold who initiated the attack because he did not like black people. A forensic pathologist determined the cause of death was stabbing and a blow to the head. Due to the decomposition of the body at the time of its discovery, further conclusions could not be established, and strangulation could not be ruled out as a possible cause of death.

On April 12, 1978, Betty Gardner, a 33-year-old black woman, was sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered during a racially-motivated hate crime in St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Gardner had been hitchhiking when she was picked up by four white people: cousins John Arnold and John Plath, and their girlfriends, Cindy Sheets and Carol Ullman. After dropping Gardner off, Arnold suggested to the group that they kill her. Gardner was then sexually assaulted, strangled, beaten, and stabbed to death. After the murder, Arnold carved the letters "KKK" into her body.

On April 12, 1978, Gardner was hitchhiking near Beaufort, South Carolina, heading to St. Helena Island to work on her father's farm. As she waited for a ride, a green Pontiac with South Carolina plates stopped by the side of the road. Inside the vehicle was John Arnold; accompanied by his 11-year-old runaway girlfriend, Carol Ullman, and John Plath; accompanied by his 17-year-old girlfriend, Cindy Sheets. Also in the vehicle were two dogs. The group was heading to the beach and had been staying with a United States Marine and his wife. The vehicle they were driving belonged to the couple. Gardner accepted the group's offer of a ride and headed off with them. Unbeknownst to her, Arnold was on the run and was wanted on escape charges for failing to return from a weekend furlough from a pre-release facility at State Correctional Institution – Huntingdon in Pennsylvania. A short time later, Gardner was dropped off at the end of a dirt lane. After she left the vehicle, Arnold suggested to the group that they kill her. When asked why, his response was simply, "Because I hate niggers." The group then returned to Gardner and picked her up again, offering to drop her off nearer to her location.

The executions of Arnold and Plath marked the rare occasion of white defendants being executed for murdering a black victim. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, only 21 white people have been executed for murdering a black victim (less than 1.4 percent of all executions). At the time of Arnold's execution, 113 black defendants had been executed for murdering a white victim, compared to just six white defendants executed for murdering a black victim. After Arnold's execution, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for South Carolina, Steve Bates, commented on the disparity in executions by the race of defendants and victims, as well as his belief in racism in the judicial system. Bates stated that Arnold's execution was the one exception to the rule.

John David "Butch" Arnold Jr. and John Herman Plath, two white American men, were first cousins from York, Pennsylvania. Both had lengthy rap sheets for prior offenses. Prior to Gardner's murder, Arnold had been arrested nineteen times, while Plath had been arrested eleven times. Arnold had been arrested for assault, burglary, false imprisonment, and parole violations. Plath had been arrested for attempted robbery, auto theft, harassment by communication, receiving stolen goods, and theft. Both men had also been involved in unrelated shootings in separate cases, in which they were both charged, however, the charges were later dropped. Arnold was accused of shooting a former girlfriend with a rifle, but the charge was dropped when she refused to testify against him. Plath was also charged in the 1973 fatal shooting of his friend, 18-year-old Frank Winchnarz. He was only charged with involuntary manslaughter, however, the charge was later dismissed altogether due to lack of evidence.