Justice for Wendy Gardner

Here is the Reuters news article:

KINGSTON, N.Y., Feb 21 (Reuter) - A 15-year-old girl was convicted on Friday of murder charges in the death of her grandmother, whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car two days after the 1994 slaying.

Wendy Gardner was 13 when she and her boyfriend were charged with killing Elizabeth Gardner, 67, in upstate New York.

The grandmother had been raising the girl after her parents, both of whom had drug and alcohol abuse problems, gave up custody.

Prosecutors said Gardner persuaded her boyfriend to wrap a nylon cord around the elderly woman's neck and strangle her. They said the young couple then had sex and played video games in the dead woman's home after putting the corpse in the car.

The teenager held her head in her hands and cried as the jury read its guilty verdict in the Ulster County, New York, court. The jury had deliberated 11 hours before finding her guilty of murder.

Gardner faced a possible prison sentence of five years to life at her sentencing March 31. Prosecutors said they would not press for the harshest sentence of nine years to life.

Defence attorney Jeremiah Flaherty claimed his client had been the victim of child abuse and was manipulated by her boyfriend, James Evans, now 18. He already has been convicted of murder in the case.

"This is the hardest case i ever tried in my life because she is such a little kid," Flaherty said. He said he would appeal the verdict.

Gardner testified she had been joking and never believed Evans would kill her grandmother. But prosecutors said the Dec. 28, 1994 murder had been planned for weeks.

Gardner's younger sister Kathy, then 11, testified at the trial that the older girl forcibly kept her in the house and threatened to kill her if she went to the police. She finally escaped and contacted police, who found the body in the car.

The grandmother, described as strict and deeply religious, had been caring for the two sisters after their parents' relationship fell apart.

Their parents separated after their mother stabbed their father during an argument over cigarettes. The father was an alcoholic and drug abuser, while the mother later became a drug addict and a prostitute and died last year of AIDS, authorities said.

The teenager's father killed his own father after the two men had a fist fight, the defence attorney said.
17:51 02-21-97

Now here's the analysis from someone going only on the facts he read in the paper;

From jen1orbit@aol.com Sun Feb 23 12:25:48 1997
Date: 22 Feb 1997 13:52:51 GMT
From: Jen1orbit
Newsgroups: alt.true-crime
Subject: 15 y.o. abused girl faces long prison sentence

Here's a good example of the deranged logic that society uses in punishing people who merely reflect the truth of their own life experiences. This is hot off the Reuters newswire. Here she is, 13 year old Wendy Gardner found guilty of murdering her grandmother, and now facing at least 5 years of jail time, although the article says "5 years to life", so the idea of her "only" having to serve 5 years is not all that likely.

Anyway, here are the facts: She herself apparently did not kill her grandmother, she just asked and told her boyfriend to go ahead and kill grandma. This was at age 13, her own mother had already stabbed her father during an argument over cigarettes, The father was a drunk and a drug abuser, the mother was a drug addict and died of AIDS. The girl's father killed his own father after a fist fight..... So this is the "mirror" that 13 year old Wendy was living in. This was HER reality, just as clear and valid as anyone else's reality is to them.

Of course she felt rage. Of course she wanted to hurt/kill people. Humans reflect their own life experiences in forming their feelings and emotions towards other people. What strikes me is that Wendy didn't kill her grandmother, she didn't even help her boyfriend do it, according to this news report. All she did was "persuade" her boyfriend to do the killing.

And that makes her guilty of murder, deserving of at least 5 years, perhaps a lot more, in prison? It is outrageous that YOUR society would inflict this "justice" on a 13 year old girl who experienced abuse and brutality as a child. Where the hell do you expect her to have found a so called "moral base", a belief that killing and violence are wrong and unacceptable. Her reality told her that abuse, pain, violence, were totally appropriate in life. Her reality was CREATED and FORMED by this society itself, through allowing Wendy to grow up, from birth onward, in an envirinment where her mother and father were both violent, addicted, and unable to instill within Wendy any sense of "right and wrong", because they themselves possessed no such moral center.

How the hell can you allow a child to be raised by two incompetent, violent, abusive, addicts, and then condemn little Wendy to many years in prison, because at the age of 13 she managed to talk her boyfriend into killing her grandma?? The logic that society uses is deranged, IMHO.

I love how the grandmother is described as having been "deeply religious". On top of all the abuse and pain that little Wendy suffered from her parents, she wound up living with some old broad who was on a god kick. I can just envision grandma trying to convince 11 and 12 year old Wendy that she must believe in this non-existent, omnipotent god fable character. And Wendy feeling rage, because perhaps she was intelligent enough to see through the pathetic lies of the god fable, and felt outrage that this old woman would try and force her to accept some ridiculous myth.....

And now, society is going to imprison her, at age 15, even though she apparently has never physically killed anyone, and never never even hurt or struck out violently at anyone. All she did was "ask" and "persuade" her boyfriend to act on her behalf, and strike out at her grandma. EVERYTHING within her young mind, at age 13, was PUT into her mind by this society and by her own legitimate life experiences from birth up to age 13. She created nothing evil or immoral or violent or hateful within herself. Whatever rage and negativity within her was PUT within her by external forces, namely the parents to whom she was given upon birth. Your society's right to now imprison her for acting out her true reality, cannot possibly be justified from either a rational or moral perspective, IMHO.

Take care, JOE

Write to Joe
Joe is not a member of this system nor is he one of our correspondents. He is a frequent contributor to alt.true-crime, from which we picked up this story.

Now, here's some background you didn't get in the papers:

Astraea received the following message from a friend of Wendy's dad, in November 1997. It's interesting to note that Astraea's Web was at that time the only page carrying information on Wendy's story. There are other articles on Wendy now, and a book, which we understand to be a sensationalised exploitation of the story and which we will not sell. We urge you to read the following, and to write to Mr. Walters at robbie@shakewell.biz if you wish to help call for a new trial for Wendy.

As of August 2003: "Wendy has been moved to an adult prison out near Buffalo, NY: as far from her father possible without leaving the state. He's getting ready to file for a writ of habeas corpus."

Comment:

The "incompetent, violent, abusive, addict" mentioned above, Clarence "Buzzy" Gardner, is a friend of mine, and we have spent the last year trying to get Wendy out of the situation she is in, namely life imprisonment. he would like you to know that he is not a drunk or a drug addict, and resents such information appearing over the internet. The above-mentioned web page, by the way, is the only hit obtained from search engines for "Wendy Gardner."

At the time of her arrest, the Ulster County Department of Social Services for the State of new York had full custody and guardianship over Wendy Gardner. Nevertheless, despite all the terrible things the authorities claim about Wendy's father, he was used as a shill to "waive" Wendy's Miranda rights during questioning by police on New Year's Eve, 1994. Therefore, Wendy was illegally arrested and could not have stood trial, had the system done its job. Instead of calling Buzzy, the police were obligated to contact DSS instead. They did not, and our corrupt District Attorney, Michael Kavanah, conveniently ignored the law in Wendy's case, in order to get a high-profile murder conviction. THAT is the real story behind Wendy's trial, but nobody in the media, the DA's office, Family Court, the defence attorney (who put a lien on her grandmother's estate to pay for her defence) and especially her law guardian at DSS seem to care or pay attention to Wendy's illegal incarceration. She recently turned sixteen, resides at a detention center near Albany, and is surrounded by extremely violent young delinquents. Her father, BTW, calls her every day and visits every week.

We are looking for people who are willing to publicize the illegalities in Wendy's trial, in order to have her released, and also to protect future victims of systematic / institutional abuse, so that this tragedy never happens again. Any assistance, advice, referral or communication towards these ends would be appreciated.

--R

Rob walters
PO Box 225
Burlingham, NY
12722 USA
845-733-6087
robbie@shakewell.biz