He murdered his girlfriend in a motel room, then went gambling with friends as if nothing had happened.
Now, years later, the Arkansas killer is sitting on death row with a shocking request for the state.
Tried choking her with his hands
A convicted killer on Arkansas’ death row has shocked the public by demanding the state go ahead and execute him — arguing he’d rather die now than rot in a cell crawling with bugs.
Scotty Gardner, 60, has been sitting on death row since 2018, after strangling his girlfriend Heather Stubbs to death with the cord of a curling iron during a motel room fight in Conway, Arkansas.
According to court documents, Gardner attacked Stubbs after she pushed him during an argument. He first tried choking her with his hands, then wrapped the curling iron cord around her neck several times and pulled it tight until she died.
After the brutal killing, Gardner showed little remorse. He stole $240 and two cell phones from Stubbs, drove to Hot Springs, then crossed into Oklahoma where he met up with two friends. The very next day, while he was gambling, a motel clerk discovered Stubbs’ body facedown in the room. Gardner was arrested soon after returning to Hot Springs.
Isn’t asking for mercy
In August 2018, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Since then, Gardner has remained on death row — but he isn’t asking for mercy. Instead, he’s been begging the courts to speed up his execution.
According to USA Today, Gardner recently filed a handwritten plea with the Arkansas Supreme Court that read: ”Set a date and let’s do it.”
This isn’t the first time he’s made such a request. Back in 2020, Gardner said he’d accept death by electric chair or even firing squad if that’s what it took to end his life behind bars.
Speaking with USA Today, Gardner explained why he wants the state to kill him sooner rather than later:
”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,” he said.
He went on to describe his life in solitary confinement as unbearable. His cell, he claims, is “a walk-in closet with a shower, toilet, a sink and drain in the floor that bugs crawl in and out constantly.” Gardner also complained of overflowing toilets and recurring black mold problems.
No executions since 2017
Arkansas hasn’t executed an inmate since 2017, and Gardner’s request is currently tangled in legal challenges.
Ten other inmates have filed a lawsuit to block Arkansas’ newly authorized use of nitrogen hypoxia — a method that forces convicts to suffocate on pure nitrogen gas — arguing it’s wildly different from the lethal injection the juries originally ordered. “Arkansas juries explicitly sentenced our clients to execution by lethal injection – not gas – and the General Assembly cannot rewrite those verdicts to impose death by this very different and highly problematic method,” said Heather Fraley, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
Death by nitrogen hypoxia is largely untested in the U.S., though states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi have approved it as a backup due to dwindling supplies of lethal injection drugs. The method has also been adapted in Sarco suicide pods in a few countries abroad, but exactly how Arkansas would administer it remains unclear.
Gardner, meanwhile, remains on death row, pushing the courts to let him face the ultimate sentence — but for now, the legal battles and questions about execution methods keep the outcome hanging in the balance.
What do you think? Should inmates like Gardner have the right to demand a quicker death, or should they be forced to serve out their time behind bars until the state decides otherwise?
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