High court will not hear "stocking strangler's" appeal

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of the so-called "Columbus stocking strangler," setting the course for Georgia's next execution.

Carlton Gary was sentenced to death in 1986 for killing and raping three Columbus women who were between the ages of 59 and 89. His crime spree, which left victims strangled with their own stockings, terrified Columbus residents over an eight-month period in the late 1970s.

Gary, who has long maintained his innocence, was implicated but not charged with the deaths of four other women. On Monday, the high court declined to hear Gary's final appeals, which contend he was wrongly denied funds for a forensic serologist and that prosecutors improperly withheld important evidence to Gary's defense team.