Update December 5: He's been executed. Gardner is the 40th person executed by South Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Original post: Dept. of CorrectionsJoseph Gardner will be put to death on December 5, the S.C. Department of Corrections said on Monday, November 17.

Gardner was convicted in the brutal 1992 racially motivated raping and murder of Melissa "Missi" McLauchlin of Charleston. Gardner has been on death row since 1995, and his execution order came from the S.C. Supreme Court on November 10.

Go read all about it at The State. The Post and Courier has a collection of articles from 1995 about Gardner.