News Lead
Georgia has only three Conviction Integrity Units covering 3 of the state’s 159 counties, leaving the overwhelming majority of people convicted in Georgia with no prosecutorial pathway to challenge wrongful convictions — even as CIUs nationally surpassed innocence organizations in exonerations for the first time in 2024.
The coverage gap is compounded by a legal landscape that a new GPS analysis calls an “obstacle course” for the wrongfully convicted: Georgia denies the right to counsel in habeas corpus proceedings, imposes a four-year statute of limitations on post-conviction challenges, and bars successive petitions — even when new evidence of innocence emerges. The average DNA exoneree serves 14 years before exoneration, meaning Georgia’s deadline expires a full decade before most wrongfully convicted people could develop their claims.
Nationally, Conviction Integrity Units helped secure 62 exonerations in 2024, compared to 53 by innocence organizations — marking a turning point that underscores how critical prosecutorial review has become to correcting injustice. Yet in Georgia, a person wrongfully convicted in any of 156 counties has no CIU to turn to.
Key Takeaway: Only 3 of Georgia’s 159 counties have Conviction Integrity Units, and the state’s restrictive legal barriers close the courthouse door to most wrongful conviction claims before they can be developed.
Quotable Statistics
Georgia’s CIU Coverage Gap:
– 3 Conviction Integrity Units exist in Georgia, all in metro-area counties (Fulton, Chatham, Gwinnett), covering just 3 of the state’s 159 counties and 49 judicial circuits.
– 156 counties — roughly 98% of Georgia — have no prosecutorial mechanism to review potentially wrongful convictions.
The National Picture:
– CIUs helped secure 62 exonerations in 2024, surpassing the 53 exonerations by innocence organizations.
– 93 (63%) of the 147 total exonerations in 2024 involved a professional exonerator (CIU or innocence organization).
– Only about 5% of the nation’s approximately 2,300 prosecutor offices have a CIU — approximately 122 units as of 2025.
Georgia’s Legal Barriers:
– Georgia imposes a four-year habeas corpus statute of limitations (O.C.G.A. § 9-14-42). The average DNA exoneree serves 14 years before exoneration — 10 years past Georgia’s deadline.
– Georgia is one of the few states that does not guarantee the right to counsel in habeas corpus proceedings. Most people in prison must represent themselves.
Where CIUs Exist, They Find Wrongful Convictions:
– Chatham County accounts for 20% of Georgia’s total exonerations and has 9 known exonerations — despite being only the fifth most populous county.
– Harris County, Texas — a CIU in a politically conservative jurisdiction — has produced 132 exonerations since 2014.
– Brooklyn, New York’s CIU secured 24 exonerations, 22 of which involved African-American individuals.
Fiscal Impact:
– Georgia’s Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act requires $75,000 per year in compensation for each wrongfully imprisoned person, in addition to ongoing incarceration costs.
Key Takeaway: Georgia’s 3 CIUs cover less than 2% of the state’s counties, while nationally CIUs now produce more exonerations than innocence organizations.
Context and Background
What is a Conviction Integrity Unit? A CIU is a division within a prosecutor’s office that investigates claims of actual innocence, reviews cases where new evidence undermines confidence in a verdict, and examines potential prosecutorial misconduct. CIUs represent a shift from treating convictions as final achievements to treating conviction integrity as an ongoing responsibility.
Georgia’s Three Existing CIUs:
– Fulton County (est. 2019): Georgia’s first CIU, directed by Aimee Maxwell, founding Executive Director of the Georgia Innocence Project with nearly 40 years of criminal law experience. The unit achieved notable results including the 2021 exonerations of Mario Stinchcomb and Michael Woolfolk, who had been wrongfully convicted of murder in 2002.
– Chatham County (est. 2022): Established by DA Shalena Jones, funded through a DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance grant. As of May 2024, the CIU had received 30 requests for review; slightly over half were screened out for not meeting basic eligibility requirements.
– Gwinnett County (est. 2021): Established by DA Patsy Austin-Gatson, accepting applications online or by mail.
Why This Matters Now: The GPS analysis identifies a convergence of factors creating urgency:
– CIUs nationally have become the dominant force in exonerations, surpassing innocence organizations in 2024.
– Georgia’s Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act — passed with bipartisan support and signed by Republican Governor Kemp — demonstrates existing political will for wrongful conviction reform.
– The 2024 DOJ investigation found Georgia prison conditions so severe they violate the Constitution — meaning every person wrongfully held in the system is exposed to unconstitutional conditions.
– The 2026 Georgia gubernatorial race creates a strategic window for policy advocacy.
What Georgia’s Barriers Look Like in Practice: A person wrongfully convicted in rural Georgia faces a nearly insurmountable series of obstacles. They have no CIU to petition. They have no right to a lawyer for habeas proceedings. They must navigate complex post-conviction law pro se. They must file within four years of their conviction becoming final — long before most wrongful convictions can be uncovered. If they miss a legal argument on direct appeal, it is procedurally barred. If they file one habeas petition and lose, a second petition is nearly impossible — even with new evidence.
The Public Safety Dimension: Fulton County CIU director Aimee Maxwell frames wrongful convictions as a public safety crisis: “If you get it wrong, there’s an innocent person in prison, but also the guilty person is still out there. So you’re not safe. You have an illusion of safety, but you’re not safe.”
Key Takeaway: Georgia’s three existing CIUs are all in metro areas, and the state’s legal framework creates a nearly insurmountable obstacle course for wrongfully convicted people in the remaining 156 counties.
Story Angles
1. The 14-Year Gap: Georgia’s Deadline Expires Before Most Wrongful Convictions Can Be Proven
The average DNA exoneree serves 14 years before exoneration, but Georgia closes the courthouse door after just four. This story examines Georgia’s habeas statute of limitations alongside real cases to show how the deadline functions as a barrier to justice. Reporters can compare Georgia’s deadline to other states and interview post-conviction attorneys about the practical impact on people they represent. The question at the center: How many people are serving time in Georgia prisons for crimes they did not commit, with no legal pathway to prove it?
2. What Chatham County’s Numbers Reveal About the Rest of Georgia
Chatham County — Georgia’s fifth most populous county — accounts for 20% of the state’s total exonerations, with 9 known cases. This disproportionate concentration raises a critical question: If one county produces this many exonerations, what is happening in the 156 counties that have no CIU and no mechanism to look? This data-driven story could map Georgia’s exonerations geographically, compare county prosecution rates, and explore whether the absence of review infrastructure is concealing a broader crisis.
3. The Conservative Case for CIUs: What Texas Teaches Georgia
Harris County, Texas — in one of the most politically conservative states in the country — has produced 132 exonerations since 2014 through its CIU. With Georgia’s Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act already signed into law by a Republican governor, this story examines the bipartisan fiscal and public safety arguments for expanding CIUs statewide. At $75,000 per year in compensation liability plus incarceration costs, every wrongful conviction Georgia fails to catch costs taxpayers. Reporters can interview prosecutors in Texas about implementation and explore what it would take to bring that model to Georgia’s 49 judicial circuits.
Read the Source Document
Download the full GPS analysis: Conviction Integrity Units: A Pathway to Justice in Georgia (PDF)
Other Versions
- Public Version — A plain-language explainer for community members, families, and advocates
- Legislator Version — A policy brief with implementation recommendations for Georgia lawmakers