Here are the latest updates on the scheduled execution of Georgia death row inmate Carlton Gary:
10:33 p.m.
The State executed Carlton Gary, Thursday, marking Georgia's first execution of the year. Gary was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m., but it was not carried out until 10:33 p.m. Gary did not accept a final prayer and did not record a final statement. Read his last words to 11Alive here.
There have been 69 men and one woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Gary was the 48th inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 54 men under death sentence in Georgia.
5:30 p.m.
The Georgia Supreme Court has declined to stop the scheduled execution of Carlton Gary. The 67-year-old, known as the "Stocking Strangler," is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 7 p.m.
Gary was convicted of raping and killing three elderly women in 1977. Two had been strangled with their own stockings; the third had been strangled with a scarf.
Prosecutors said he was also responsible for six other attacks, four of them fatal. All of the victims were raped and choked, most with stockings.
Gary said that his innocence has been proven by the recent DNA testing results and other evidence, including a footprint at one of the crime scenes and a bite mark on one of the victims.
The high court said the arguments in Gary's motion for a stay of execution were similar to those raised in other requests the court previously denied.
“We conclude that Gary has failed to show why this Court must exercise its original jurisdiction in his case, something that this Court will do only in ‘extremely rare’ cases, which this case is not because the relevant recent decision in the trial court could be raised before this Court through an application for discretionary appeal,” the order said.
Gary still has appeals pending before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
After declining to request a final meal, Gary was to receive the institutional tray consisting of grilled hamburger, hot dog, white beans, coleslaw and a grape drink, according to Georgia Department of Corrections.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report
