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20/20
Air Date: Friday, July 17, 2020
Time Slot: 9:01 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC
Episode Title: (#4230-120) "In the Cold Dark Night"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

ABC NEWS' '20/20' AND LONE WOLF STUDIOS FILMMAKERS PRESENT A TWO-HOUR BROADCAST, '20/20: IN THE COLD DARK NIGHT,' ON THE RACIST MURDER OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN IN RURAL GEORGIA AND THE 35-YEAR JOURNEY TO JUSTICE

Show Includes Unprecedented Access to Law Enforcement and Relatives of Both the Victim, Timothy Coggins, and the Accused

Program Explores Systemic Racism in Spalding County, Georgia; Power Dynamics; and the Problematic Justice System

'20/20: In the Cold Dark Night' Airs Friday, July 17 (9:01 - 11:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC

ABC News' "20/20" and Lone Wolf Studios filmmakers present a two-hour broadcast, "20/20: In the Cold Dark Night," on the story of Timothy Coggins' murder. Coggins, a young black man, was brutally murdered in 1983 in a small Georgia town due, in part, to his relationship with a white woman. When both state and local authorities stopped investigating and the Coggins family received threats to remain quiet, the case went cold for nearly 35 years. In 2017, the Spalding County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reopened the cold case and eventually charged Frankie Gebhardt and William Moore Sr. with Coggins' murder, despite having no new DNA evidence to prompt the reopening. The filmmakers embedded in Spalding County, Georgia, as these surprising new developments unfolded. They gained unprecedented access to the sheriff's department, including evidence and a diary written in the 1980s by a local police officer who infiltrated the KKK, discovering the KKK claimed to have members who worked in the local police departments; exclusive footage from inside the courtroom during the case, which captured Gebhardt's murder conviction and when Moore pleaded guilty to manslaughter; and interviews with the families of Coggins, Moore and Gebhardt. "20/20: In the Cold Dark Night" also takes a close look at the community and its culture, including deep-rooted racism which impacted Coggins' case and that several interviewed say still exists today, the dynamic between those in positions of power and the black community, the role of law enforcement and the journey for justice. "20/20: In the Cold Dark Night" airs Friday, July 17 (9:01 - 11:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC.

Terri Lichstein is executive producer; David Sloan is senior executive producer, and Taigi Smith and Marc Dorian are producers of "20/20: In the Cold Dark Night."

Stephen Robert Morse is director/producer/writer; Max Peltz is producer/writer, and Miikka Leskinen is editor/co-producer/writer of "20/20: In the Cold Dark Night" for Lone Wolf Studios in association with Radical Media. Morse is also the Emmy(R) Award-nominated producer of Netflix's "Amanda Knox."

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