The state Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down Carlton Gary's clemency request Wednesday evening meaning the so-called "Stocking Strangler" could be executed Thursday unless the courts step in.
The board’s decision came little more than 1 ½hours after meeting with prosecutors and law enforcement officers from Columbus who wanted to see Gary executed for murdering three elderly women in the last 1970s by strangling them with their own stockings. He was blamed with killing four other women in the same manner but was not tried for their deaths.
Gary's lawyers, who also met with the board, have argued new forensic evidence shows someone else Gary is not the Stocking Strangler.
Gary, 67, still has appeals pending. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday, which would make him the first person Georgia has executed this year.
About the Author
