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Burks, Letetia Shanta

Status: active

Profile written July 19, 2026

Current Position Warden 1 Lee State Prison

Salary $81,132 2025 · state payroll

Deaths Under Their Watch 11 during their tenure

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

Letetia Shanta Burks has held facility leadership roles in the Georgia Department of Corrections since at least 2018, beginning as a Deputy Warden at Rutledge State Prison and remaining in that post through 2023. In 2025, Burks was promoted to Warden at Lee State Prison. According to GPS records, a total of eleven deaths have been attributed to Burks’s leadership tenures — ten during the years she served as Deputy Warden at Rutledge, and one in 2025 while she was Warden at Lee. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation identified two of the deaths at Rutledge as homicides; the families of at least two decedents have pursued litigation tied to the deaths.

What happened on their watch

Rutledge State Prison — Deputy Warden (2018–2023) During Burks’s six-year stint as Deputy Warden at Rutledge, GPS records attribute ten deaths to the facility. The earliest came in 2020, with five deaths recorded between April and July: Andrew Campbell, 28; James Mitchell, 58; Terry Williams, 61; Richard Hatcher, 66; and Harold Brown, 53. Three more deaths followed in 2021–2022: Curtis Mincey, 74; Boyzie Barnes, 65; and Leonard Dillard, 57. In 2023, John Tidd, 59, and Daniel Tyler Nichols, 26, rounded out the ten. Two of these deaths were investigated by the AJC as homicides: Nichols’s cause of death was asphyxia due to neck compression; Mincey died from blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities. A lawsuit filed by Mincey’s sister in early 2025 alleges that Mincey suffered from a mental illness and did not receive appropriate medical or psychological assistance prior to his death. Additionally, a state settlement ledger reflects a $395,000 liability payout linked to Campbell’s 2020 death at Rutledge. Separate intelligence reports note that during this period, the facility saw arrests for contraband smuggling — including an officer who admitted to bringing in tobacco, and a sergeant alleged to have provided cellphones and other items in exchange for money.

Lee State Prison — Warden (2025)
Burks assumed the Warden role at Lee State Prison in January 2025. GPS records show one death during that tenure: Quinton Pearson, 45, died at the facility on September 8, 2025. The cause category is recorded in state data, but no additional investigative or litigation details specific to this death have surfaced at this time.

Litigation

Mincey v. (defendants not named in the input) — A lawsuit was filed on January 21, 2025, in connection with the 2021 death of Curtis Mincey at Rutledge State Prison. The complaint, brought by Mincey’s sister, alleges that he suffered from mental illness and did not receive appropriate medical or psychological assistance. The case status is unresolved per available records.
State of Georgia liability settlement — Andrew Campbell — A $395,000 settlement was paid by the state’s risk management fund on April 2, 2020, tied to Andrew Campbell’s death at Rutledge State Prison. The settlement is documented in the GA DOAS Risk Management ledger, which links the payout to the April 2020 death.

Sources

Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, identifying deaths of Daniel Tyler Nichols and Curtis Mincey and detailing the lawsuit allegations regarding Mincey’s lack of mental health care.
GPS records — compiled tenure, death attribution, and facility-level death counts for Letetia Shanta Burks.
GA Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — documenting a $395,000 payout for Andrew Campbell.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on contraband smuggling arrests at Rutledge State Prison, including the allegations against Sergeant Hall.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 19, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.

Positions Held

Title	Facility	Tenure
WARDEN 1	LEE STATE PRISON	2025-01-01 → present
DEPUTY WARDEN		2024-01-01 → 2024-12-31
DEPUTY WARDEN	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	2018-01-01 → 2023-12-31

Deaths attributed during tenure

11 people died at facilities under Burks, Letetia Shanta's leadership.

Date	Decedent	Age	Facility	Role at time
2025-09-08	QUINTON PEARSON	45	LEE STATE PRISON	WARDEN 1
2023-10-11	LEONARD LEROY DILLARD	57	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2023-07-18	JOHN IRVIN SR TIDD	59	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2023-04-23	DANIEL TYLER NICHOLS	26	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2022-04-30	BOYZIE BARNES	65	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2021-07-22	CURTIS MINCEY	74	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2021-03-05	HAROLD EDWARD BROWN	53	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2020-07-09	RICHARD HATCHER	66	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2020-06-22	TERRY WAYNE WILLIAMS	61	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2020-05-04	JAMES ERIC MITCHELL	58	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN
2020-04-02	ANDREW PHILLIP CAMPBELL	28	RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON	DEPUTY WARDEN

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