A lawyer for a Georgia inmate known as the “stocking strangler” says newly discovered evidence proves his client’s innocence, and his scheduled execution this week would be a “stain on the State of Georgia.”
Carlton Gary, 67, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening at the state prison in Jackson in what would be Georgia’s first execution this year. He was convicted in 1986 on three counts each of malice murder, rape and burglary for the 1977 deaths of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff.
The west Georgia city of Columbus was terrified by a string of attacks on older women between September 1977 and April 1978. Ranging in age from 59 to 89, the women were beaten, raped and choked, often with their own stockings. Seven died and two were injured.
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