COLUMBUS - A Superior Court judge has set March 31 as the date to begin selecting a jury to determine whether a convicted murderer is mentally incompetent to be executed for a 1976 slaying. <br>
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Johnny Lee Gates was sentenced to death Sept. 1, 1977 for killing 19-year-old Katharina Gertrud Wright, a German immigrant who was raped and robbed in her Columbus apartment by a man posing as a gas company employee. <br>
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Gates, now 46, was on death row until his sentenced was suspended in 1992. Four years later, the Georgia Supreme Court ordered his case returned to Superior Court to determine whether he is mentally retarded. Georgia law enacted after his conviction bars executing a prisoner who is mentally impaired. <br>
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On Friday, Judge John D. Allen said he had only recently received the case but demanded the attorneys agree on a date to bring the case to a conclusion. <br>
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``I'm going to get this case over with in my lifetime,'' Allen said. <br>
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At Friday's hearing, defense lawyers presented witnesses who testified that evidence in the 26-year-old case - including blood samples, hair samples and cuticle clippings that could have provided the defense an opportunity to test for DNA matches - had been purged from crime lab storage. <br>
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But Allen ruled the question of a DNA match is not an issue. The judge said the purpose of the hearing was to determine if there was any remaining physical evidence to assist in determining whether Gates is mentally retarded.
