A Muscogee County judge is being asked to grant a new trial to Carlton Gary, the so-called "Columbus Stocking Strangler" who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of three women in the 1970s.
In a court filing Monday, Gary's lawyers say DNA tests of two of Gary's nine alleged victims show he did not commit those crimes.
Jack Martin, one of Gary's lawyers, said the test results show a new trial is needed.
"I've never had, in my career of more than 35 years, the type of powerful new evidence this one has," he said. "It's hard to imagine how the conviction should stand, much less a death sentence."
District Attorney Julia Slater did not return phone calls or an email seeking comment. In the past, Slater has said she will fight to have Gary's death sentence carried out.
The most recent DNA tests show that semen found on the gown of the only eyewitness to identify Gary as her attacker determined that the sperm did not come from him, the motion said. The witness, Gertrude Miller, who is now deceased, testified she was awakened in her bedroom the night of Sept. 11, 1977, by a single black man who then struck her with a board and raped her.
An earlier DNA test showed that semen found in the case of Martha Thurmond could not have come from Gary. Gary was sentenced to death for raping and killing Thurmond.
Gary was also sentenced to death for raping and killing two other women, Kathleen Woodruff and Florence Schieble. In Woodruff's case, DNA tests were inconclusive; in Schieble's, there was insufficient evidence to conduct a DNA test, according to court filings.
Another test determined that DNA samples taken from Jean Dimenstein did come from Gary. Prosecutors, however, did not ask jurors to convict Gary for the Dimenstein rape and murder; they only used evidence from her case to show he committed similar crimes. Evidence from the case involving Miller was also used for this purpose.
Gary's court motion said if the state believes it has a case against Gary for the Dimenstein murder, it should charge him for it and bring the case to trial.
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