'Let's get this over with': Arkansas death row inmate calls for court to speed up his case
Related video: Former Arkansas Governor shares thoughts on death row inmate's passing from April 2025
GOULD, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — An Arkansas man who has been on death row for more than seven years is asking for his case to be streamlined after years of back and forth between him and the judge.
Scotty Gardner, 65, is on death row for strangling and killing his girlfriend at a Conway hotel in 2016. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2018. Gardner has served two previous stints in state prisons for separate crimes.
Court documents say that in 2020, Gardner asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to order his sentence. In a June 2020 filing, Gardner said, "I will accept any of the 5 executions — gun, gas, rope, [electric] chair, drugs."
Since 2022, Gardner has been writing letters to the Faulkner County Circuit Court complaining about delays in his case and being taken from the Varner Supermax prison in Gould to court in Conway.
Gardner said in a 2025 filing, "Set a date and let's do it."
He said in messages to USA Today in August that he wants out of "his cave" at the Varner Supermax prison.
Gardner said that his cell consists of "a walk-in closet with a shower, toilet, a sink and drain in the floor that bugs crawl in and out constantly."
“Why die of old age in a one-man cave 20 years from now when I can be forthcoming and say, 'Hey, let’s do this,'” Gardner said.
Gardner's wish may not happen any time soon.
Circuit Court Judge Charles Clawson III, of Conway, granted a six-month extension in Gardner's appeal case in May for prosecutors to respond to filings by Gardner's attorneys. The judge concluded that Gardner did not waive his rights but sought to exercise them by pursuing some avenues of appeal.
During a May 27 hearing in Conway, Clawson asked Gardner what he was trying to accomplish in court, saying some of Gardner's previous statements were contradictory.
"I can say execute me, do whatever, or we can have a hearing. ... I'm not trying to make it hard on nobody," Gardner said.
Gardner also said during the hearing, "Let's get this over with," and "I'm sick and tired [of this]."
Death penalty in Arkansas
Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2017, when four were executed over 11 days. Eight executions were scheduled; however, the other four were granted stays. Two of the executions were botched, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
10 death row inmates filed a lawsuit in August to block a law that would add the use of nitrogen gas for executions. The inmates claimed they were given a sentence of death by lethal injection.
Since the inmates were not assigned death by nitrogen hypoxia, the lawsuit argued, it was illegal to execute them in this manner.
Of the 10 inmates suing the state, Gardner was not one of them.
No updates to that lawsuit have been released since Aug. 5, when the lawsuit was filed.
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