QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Gilbert, the Innocence Project attorney, again declared Gates did not kill Wright: “Today, in the wake of the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision to vacate his conviction based on exculpatory DNA evidence, Johnny Gates — an innocent man — is free at last. Mr. Gates has survived the unimaginable: 43 long years in prison for a crime he did not commit, with 26 of those years on death row. We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Gates home, and to introduce him to our community of released clients.”
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Gates was arrested with two other men Jan. 29, 1977, for trying to rob a store. A tipster told police he had loaned Gates a .32-caliber handgun that Gates used to shoot Wright in the head, but when police later found the gun, ballistics tests proved it was not the murder weapon. Under police questioning, Gates in a signed, written confession and on videotape confessed to killing Wright, though defense attorneys later claimed detectives directed him to give that confession, taking advantage of Gates’ naivete. His attorneys said Gates had an IQ of 65. Gates said he went to Wright’s home disguised as a gas company worker, and Wright let him in, saying she had called the utility about a faulty heater. She gave him a can of oil and showed him the heater, on which he pretended to work before pulling a gun and telling her he was robbing her. She told him she had no money, but could offer him sex, which he claimed was consensual. He said he took $480 from the apartment, and then tied Wright up and started to leave. That’s when she said she could identify him, so he shot her. Besides the confession, the state presented evidence Gates’ fingerprints were found on Wright’s heater. The defense claimed Gates left his prints there in 1977, when police escorted him through the apartment during his videotaped confession. An all-white jury convicted the black defendant of murder, rape and armed robbery on Sept. 1, 1977, and sentenced him to death."
STORY: "Columbus man freed after serving 43 years for murder he claims he did not commit," by reporter Tim Chitwood, published by The Ledger-Enquirer on May 15, 2020. (Tim Chitwood is from Seale, Ala., and started as a police beat reporter with the Ledger-Enquirer in 1982. He since has covered Columbus’ serial killings and other homicides, following some from the scene of the crime to trial verdicts and ensuing appeals.)
GIST: "After almost half a century of appeals and hearings, court wins and losses, the Columbus man convicted of raping, robbing and killing a soldier’s wife in her Broadway apartment walked free Thursday from the Muscogee County Jail.
Convicted at age 21 in 1977, Johnny Lee Gates today is 63 years old, and still claims he did not murder Katharina Wright, 19, whose husband found her bound and shot in the head Nov. 30, 1976.
Gates left the jail at 3:10 p.m. His attorneys afterward issued this written statement from him:
“I’ve fought for 43 years for this day. I always had faith it would come, even when others weren’t sure. I am an innocent man. I did not commit this crime. What happened to me is something that should never happen to any person. But I am not bitter. I thank God that I am here, and I am happy to be free.”
To secure his release, Gates in a negotiated deal pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery, so he could be sentenced to 20 years for each and be freed with credit for the time he already has served in prison.
Because Gates in 1977 pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in an unrelated homicide, his record still makes him a twice-convicted killer, regardless of claims he was railroaded by a racist court system.
THE PLEA:
Attorneys tried to end the case in a hearing Monday before Judge Bobby Peters, but Peters refused to accept the plea if Gates was going to maintain he was innocent, instead of admitting his guilt. That set the stage for a second plea and sentencing on Friday.
“We don’t want people pleading guilty just to get out of jail,” Peters said Friday to attorneys in a court hearing that was live-streamed on YouTube because of social distancing amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Still Peters accepted the plea, though in recounting the evidence, Assistant District Attorney Fred Lewis told the judge, “Mr. Gates maintains he is innocent of the charged crime.”
Represented by Katherine Moss and Patrick Mulvaney of the Southern Center for Human Rights, and Claire Gilbert and Meagan Hurley of the Georgia Innocence Project, Gates answered “guilty” when asked his plea to voluntary manslaughter and “same plea” in response to the armed robbery charge.
After Peters sentenced him to serve 20 years consecutively on each charge, with credit for the 43 years he’s been in prison, Gates was released. The judge clarified that Gates would not have to go back through the Georgia Department of Corrections to be set free.
ATTORNEYS REACT:
Gates’ legal team said that having just been released from confinement amid a pandemic, he cannot immediately reconnect face-to-face with his family, but looks forward to that. Until then, his advocates will ensure he has a place to stay.
Both the prosecution and defense issued statements Friday after his release.
District Attorney Julia Slater referred to the racial issues raised in Gates’ defense:
“Mr. Gates was initially tried in 1977. While much has been made of the conduct of the prosecutors at the time, I want everyone to know that race should never be a factor in the selection of a jury in Columbus, Georgia. Mr. Gates, like every other defendant has the right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury of his peers. I took office in 2009 and made it a personal mission to hire prosecutors who would take the constitution at its word and seek justice at every turn.”
Gilbert, the Innocence Project attorney, again declared Gates did not kill Wright: “Today, in the wake of the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision to vacate his conviction based on exculpatory DNA evidence, Johnny Gates — an innocent man — is free at last. Mr. Gates has survived the unimaginable: 43 long years in prison for a crime he did not commit, with 26 of those years on death row. We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Gates home, and to introduce him to our community of released clients.”
THE BACKGROUND:
Gates was arrested with two other men Jan. 29, 1977, for trying to rob a store. A tipster told police he had loaned Gates a .32-caliber handgun that Gates used to shoot Wright in the head, but when police later found the gun, ballistics tests proved it was not the murder weapon.
Under police questioning, Gates in a signed, written confession and on videotape confessed to killing Wright, though defense attorneys later claimed detectives directed him to give that confession, taking advantage of Gates’ naivete. His attorneys said Gates had an IQ of 65.
Gates said he went to Wright’s home disguised as a gas company worker, and Wright let him in, saying she had called the utility about a faulty heater.
She gave him a can of oil and showed him the heater, on which he pretended to work before pulling a gun and telling her he was robbing her. She told him she had no money, but could offer him sex, which he claimed was consensual.
He said he took $480 from the apartment, and then tied Wright up and started to leave. That’s when she said she could identify him, so he shot her.
Besides the confession, the state presented evidence Gates’ fingerprints were found on Wright’s heater. The defense claimed Gates left his prints there in 1977, when police escorted him through the apartment during his videotaped confession.
An all-white jury convicted the black defendant of murder, rape and armed robbery on Sept. 1, 1977, and sentenced him to death. Besides Wright’s slaying, prosecutors cited Gates’ guilty plea to a second homicide and to two counts of armed robbery to persuade jurors the death penalty was warranted.
THE APPEALS:
Later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally disabled was unconstitutional, and an appeals court on April 14, 1992 decided Gates was entitled to a trial to determine whether he had an intellectual disability.
After that ended in a mistrial, the defense and prosecution agreed Nov. 12, 2003, to change Gates’ sentence from death to life in prison.
The Georgia Innocence Project came to Gates’ defense in 2015, later joined by the Southern Center for Human Rights.
The forensic evidence from Wright’s murder was thought to have been destroyed in 1979, but two interns with the Innocence Project digging through boxes of files in 2015 found an envelope containing Wright’s velour bathrobe belt and her husband’s black military ties. Tests on that evidence found none of Gates’ DNA.
Defense attorneys have noted also that a blood smear near Wright’s body was found to be blood Type B. Both Gates and Wright had Type O blood.
Though the DNA tests proved crucial in Gates’ appeal, his attorneys also pointed to discriminatory jury selection procedures they said were evident from the notes prosecutors kept during jury selection.
In a Jan. 10, 2019, ruling overturning the conviction and granting Gates a new trial, Senior Muscogee Superior Court Judge Allen declared prosecutors in the 1970s regularly struck black jurors in death-penalty cases involving black defendants, to ensure they got an all-white jury.
“The evidence of systematic race discrimination during jury selection in this case undeniable,” the judge wrote. “The same prosecutors engaged in the same acts of discrimination in all death penalty cases of black males in the Chattahoochee Circuit for the years 1975-1979. The prosecutors then made racially charged arguments to the all-white juries they secured.”
Still, Gates’ defense team raised that issue too late in the appeals to meet the law’s standards for granting a defendant a new trial, Allen ruled.
The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Allen’s decision on March 13, sending the case back to Muscogee Superior Court. Gates later was transferred from state prison to the county jail to await a second trial.
But prosecutors decided retrying so old a case was impractical, and instead negotiated a plea deal. Wright’s widower, Gregory Wright, agreed with that, they said.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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