ATLANTA, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The Georgia Supreme Court stopped the execution of the so-called stocking strangler, ordering a judge to consider the convict's request for a DNA test.
Carlton Gary, 59, heard the news four hours before his scheduled execution, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"We are gratified the Supreme Court saw what we always saw -- how could you execute someone if there is DNA that can tell us whether he is in fact guilty?" Jack Martin, Gary's attorney, said. "It would have been a sin to execute him without conducting a test."
Gary was sentenced to death in 1986 for the rape and murder of three women in Columbus, strangling them with their own stockings, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
At the time of Gary's trial, DNA testing did not exist. His fingerprints were found at the victim's homes, but Gary said a collaborator committed the crimes, the Journal-Constitution said.
