# Post-Conviction Review in Georgia > Georgia Prisoners' Speak House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation  |  September 2026 What GPS has put before the Committee Georgia Prisoners' Speak submitted writt… **Published**: 2026-08-07 **Source**: https://gps.press/brc/ **Author**: Georgia Prisoners' Speak --- Georgia Prisoners' Speak House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation | September 2026 --- What GPS has put before the Committee Georgia Prisoners' Speak submitted written evidence to the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation on August 11, 2026, and has prepared further papers for the Committee's meeting of September 18, 2026, in Milledgeville. Everything on this page is free to read, quote and check. What the Committee is, who sits on it and what it has done so far is on [the Blue Ribbon Committee page](https://gps.press/vision2027/blue-ribbon-committee/). One ask. It costs nothing. **We ask the Committee to recommend one change: repeal the four-year limitation on habeas corpus petitions, O.C.G.A. § 9-14-42(c), for every petition whatever the date of conviction, and let merit decide whether a claim is heard.** Since 1967, habeas corpus has been the only proceeding in Georgia for a constitutional claim that survives a direct appeal. Whatever the Committee builds will be received by a proceeding that runs on a four-year clock nothing stops: no statutory tolling, no equitable tolling (*Stubbs v. Hall*, 308 Ga. 354 (2020)). The reforms before the Committee decide *where* a claim is heard. This change decides *whether* it can be heard at all. **What repeal costs: nothing.** No office, no program, no appointment obligation. **What survives: every screen.** Procedural default, the certificate of probable cause before any appeal, the petitioner's burden of proof, and the successive-petition rule as the model bill amends it. Repeal opens the courthouse door. It does not open the cell. ## The September papers Prepared for the meeting of September 18, 2026. The four documents are also available together as one PDF. **Committee paper: *The evidence comes last*** 8 pages Why the four-year deadline should go, and why a lawyer alone would not fix it. Written for the members and for our readers. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/committee-paper/) [Download the package ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-September-Package-2026-09.pdf) **Supporting paper: *Four years, thirty minutes*** September revision, 16 pages The authorities behind the ask: Georgia's habeas deadline, and the means the State provides to meet it. Revised from the version submitted in August; the changes are listed on its first page. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/supporting-paper/) [Download the package ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-September-Package-2026-09.pdf) **Model bill: The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act** September revision, 8 pages The published August text with a new Section 6: a ground omitted from a first petition is heard on a showing of arguable merit, the standard the Supreme Court of Georgia already applies to certificate applications. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/model-bill/) [Download the package ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-September-Package-2026-09.pdf) **Other issues worth the Committee's attention** 8 pages Fifteen things found while working on the deadline, from the trial record to how outcomes are counted. None of them is our ask. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/other-issues/) [Download the package ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-September-Package-2026-09.pdf) **The complete September package** 44 pages, PDF All four documents in one file, as provided to the Committee. [Download PDF ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-September-Package-2026-09.pdf) ## The fifty-state survey **Post-Conviction Procedure in the Fifty States** 63 pages Fifteen questions answered for every state, in three passes: post-conviction procedure, the trial record and weight review, and counsel for a person under sentence of death. 750 cells, 734 verified by retrieving the cited source. Findings first; the rule and the authority for every state in the appendices. [Read the findings →](https://gps.press/post-conviction-fifty-states/) [The full record →](https://gps.press/post-conviction-fifty-states-data/) [Download PDF ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GPS-Fifty-State-Survey-2026-09.pdf) ## As submitted on August 11, 2026 The August submission, kept here as the record of what the Committee received then. The supporting paper above supersedes the full brief below; the figures in these three documents are as of August. **One-Page Overview** 1 page The ask and the facts that carry it, on a single sheet. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/one-page-overview/) [Download PDF ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GPS-One-Page-Overview.pdf) **Summary Brief** 8 pages The whole recommendation as submitted in August, and the three statutes the ask rests on, beginning with O.C.G.A. § 9-2-3, unchanged since the Code of 1863: “For every right there shall be a remedy.” [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/summary-brief/) [Download PDF ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GPS-Summary-Brief.pdf) **Full Brief: *Four Years, Thirty Minutes*** 17 pages, August text The supporting paper as submitted. Superseded by the September revision above. [Read online →](https://gps.press/brc/full-brief/) [Download PDF ↓](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GPS-Full-Brief.pdf) ## Model legislation [**The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act**](https://gps.press/vision2027/model-legislation/habeas-corpus-restoration-act/), the model bill giving effect to this ask, is published in full on the Vision 2027 site. The September revision above adds Section 6. ## On the sources Every judicial decision cited in these documents has been retrieved and read in full. Where a document reports the result of a search rather than the content of a decision, it says so and states the search parameters. Every cell in the fifty-state survey was checked by retrieving the cited statute, rule or decision and confirming that the quoted language appears there; the cells that could not be checked are listed, not hidden. Emphasis within quotations is added unless otherwise noted. ## Anything else you need If any member or staffer would like the underlying material, a particular opinion, the caseload data, or the survey in another form, write [accountability@gps.press](mailto:accountability@gps.press) and we will supply it. --- Georgia Prisoners' Speak is the public voice of The GDC Accountability Project, Inc., a Georgia 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Last updated September 8, 2026.