The serial killer who captured and dismembered Georgia hiker Meredith Emerson is asking a court today to set aside his death sentence for a Florida murder.
Attorneys for Gary Michael Hilton, now on death row in Florida, argue that his public defenders didn't provide effective representation for him, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. They are seeking a September hearing to present evidence for that and to try to get a new sentencing trial.
Hilton's killing spree apparently began in North Carolina with the slaying of Bob and Irene Bryant, who were hiking in a national forest. Next, he decapitated a Florida nurse, Cheryl Dunlap.
The drifter's next victim was Emerson, a 24-year-old Buford resident who disappeared while hiking Blood Mountain on New Year's Day 2008. Authorities soon named Hilton as a person of interest. Following an intense manhunt, Hilton was captured in the Atlanta area. In a plea deal, he led authorities to her body in a forest north of Cumming and confessed. In return, he received a life sentence.
Georgia then extradited him to Florida to stay trial in Dunlap’s slaying. He later pleaded guilty in federal court to killing the Bryants.
Hilton, now 68, remains a suspect in other murders in the Southeast.
