Katharina Wright was 19 when she was found murdered in her Columbus, Georgia, apartment on November 30, 1976. Her death involved a robbery and sexual assault. Johnny Lee Gates was arrested, convicted of murder, rape, and robbery, and sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

Decades later, in the early 2020s, DNA testing of evidence from the scene produced results that cast serious doubt on Gates’s involvement. The Georgia Supreme Court ordered that Gates receive a new trial. Prosecutors and defense counsel negotiated a plea that would reduce the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter, dismiss the rape charge, and release Gates with credit for 43 years served, but a judge rejected that agreement and ordered a new trial instead.

The legal status of the case remains unsettled and the question of who was responsible for Katharina Wright’s death is unresolved.