Federal court denies Hardwick's latest appeal

ATLANTA - A federal appeals court denied an appeal from a man who pleaded guilty to murdering his seven-month-old daughter and burying her along Interstate 85 in Gwinnett County. <br> <br> Kenny Hardwick, now 32, signed a plea agreement which prohibited him from filing a habeas corpus motion questioning his imprisonment or from seeking parole for 20 years. He is serving a life sentence at Valdosta State Prison. <br> <br> Hardwick claimed in his appeal that he was coerced into signing the agreement, but a three-judge panel of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said today he had properly signed the document. <br> <br> Hardwick first reported his daughter was kidnapped in 1992. When police later arrested him on no insurance and open-container violations, he confessed to killing his daughter and said she was still alive before he buried her near Interstate 85. <br> <br> Later, he said he hit the baby in the head accidentally while trying to knock something poisonous out of her hand as she put it to her mouth. He sais the blow caused the other side of her head to bang against a coffee table.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196297