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Brown, Willether
Status: active
Profile written August 9, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Willether Brown spent over a decade with the Georgia Department of Corrections, beginning as a behavioral health counselor in 2015. Brown transitioned into facility leadership in 2021, taking the role of deputy warden at Lee State Prison, where they remained through at least 2025. GPS records attribute four in-custody deaths to Brown’s leadership tenure at that facility. None of those deaths has led to a publicly known lawsuit naming Brown as a defendant, and Brown does not appear in any news reports available to GPS.What happened on their watch
Brown became deputy warden at Lee State Prison on January 1, 2021. Within five months, the first death on their watch occurred: on May 28, 2021, Pedro Perez‑Robles, age 38, died. The Georgia Department of Corrections later classified the death as a suicide in a dataset provided to the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project through an open‑records request; GPS has not obtained an independent autopsy or coroner’s finding, and the agency’s classification is not based on a pathologist’s examination. No additional detail about the circumstances appears in GPS records.After a gap of more than two years, two deaths occurred early in 2024. Christopher Aaron Godfrey, 40, died on January 16, and Daniel Emmett Ivey, 26, died on February 15. GPS records assign both deaths cause category 6; the underlying cause and manner have not been made public. The most recent fatality attributed to Brown’s tenure at Lee State Prison is that of Quinton Pearson, 45, on September 8, 2025, also listed under cause category 6. No broader systemic incident — such as a mass disturbance, DOJ investigation, or published audit — is known to have overlapped Brown’s time as deputy warden, according to the data reviewed by GPS.
Sources
- GPS personnel and custodial death records (total deaths, facility breakdown, dates, and cause categories)
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset (GA-Individual.csv), produced from a GDC open‑records response covering 2015–2021, for the GDC suicide classification of Pedro Perez‑Robles
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | LEE STATE PRISON | 2021-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden | LEE STATE PRISON | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (WL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
4 people died at facilities under Brown, Willether's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-08 | QUINTON PEARSON | 45 | LEE STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2024-02-15 | DANIEL EMMETT IVEY | 26 | LEE STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2024-01-16 | CHRISTOPHER AARON GODFREY | 40 | LEE STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2021-05-28 | PEDRO PEREZ-ROBLES | 38 | LEE STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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