Lawson, Nancy LEE

Tenure Summary

Nancy Lee Lawson entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer in 2015 and moved up the custody chain — lieutenant in 2016, captain from 2017 through 2020, correctional unit manager from 2021 — before reaching Macon State Prison, where a personnel record dated November 22, 2023 lists her as CSM Correctional Unit Manager. She was Deputy Warden at Macon through 2024 and 2025 and has held the Deputy Warden of Security post there since July 16, 2026.

GPS's death registry attributes 48 deaths to her leadership tenures, every one of them at Macon State Prison. No lawsuit naming Lawson as a defendant appears in the litigation records for this profile; the lawsuits documented at the facility were brought over conditions and individual deaths, not against her. The prison she has helped run is the subject of published allegations of extreme understaffing and of repeated homicide investigations.

What happened on their watch

Macon State Prison — CSM Correctional Unit Manager (record dated November 22, 2023), then Deputy Warden (2024–2025). The deaths recorded during her Deputy Warden years run in a steady line through 2024 and 2025. Among them: Kenneth Keith Malcom, 38, died February 12, 2024, of sharp force trauma to the head, neck, torso and upper extremities; Reginald Ginn, 31, died March 13, 2024, of blunt force head trauma, and the AJC reported he was apparently beaten with a fan motor tied to a belt; Devontae Marquez Young, 28, died May 10, 2024, after being assaulted with a sharp instrument; Mathis Lee Ward, 37, died June 8, 2024, from sharp force chest and neck trauma, assaulted with a homemade instrument of two sharpened metal pieces; Jarraad Quayshawn Williams, 32, died July 17, 2024; Shannon Pickett, 49, died July 21, 2024, of exsanguination and sharp force trauma; and Keith Antwone Green, 44, died August 30, 2024. The event records describe several of these as inmate-to-inmate assaults.

Reporting around the facility documented the conditions in which those deaths occurred. The AJC reported in March 2025 that about two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State Prison were unfilled as of October 2024, and that the coroner described only five to eight officers staffing the entire facility when responding to deaths. The same reporting cited a U.S. Department of Justice report released in October 2024 describing assaults, stabbings and rapes as routine in woefully understaffed Georgia prisons, and an AJC analysis finding 13 prison deaths from January 1 to February 4, 2025 under homicide investigation — the bloodiest start to a year in at least a decade. GDC announced that Gregory Sampson, formerly warden at Dooly State Prison, became Macon's warden on February 1, 2025.

Litigation at the facility during this period includes a Southern Center for Human Rights lawsuit filed January 24, 2025 over overcrowding and inadequate bedding, with filings describing 96 inmates sharing a single toilet, and a federal lawsuit filed January 21, 2025 over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr., alleging he was strangled by a cellmate who was a convicted murderer and blaming understaffing and indifference by prison officials. The AJC also reported allegations from families: that Kendrick Malik Brown was placed in a cell with a prisoner known to be dangerous shortly before his release date, and that Carrington Juwon Frye bled for more than half an hour after being stabbed before help arrived. In the Sanchez Jackson case, the AJC reported his family received only a brief call from the warden with a promise to follow up that never materialized, and that Jackson had told his sister as many as four men were packed into one cell, rotating spots just to sleep.

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (July 16, 2026–present). Deaths recorded in this role include Tony Horne, 48, who died August 20, 2026, and Juld Gerald Carter, whose death GPS's registry dates to October 21, 2026 and lists as a homicide; GDC's Office of Professional Standards was investigating and the body was sent to the GBI crime lab. Reports from inside the prison in October 2026 described three killings in two days, a victim's body reportedly found under a bunk after days, and an ambulance leaving in the morning while GBI and investigators remained on scene; the reports did not name the facility in every case. A September 18, 2026 report said Macon State Prison had been taken off lockdown.

Deaths during Lawson's leadership tenure named in GPS's registry:

• John Doe died October 23, 2026, at Macon State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Veasna Johnathan Bun died October 22, 2026, at Macon State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Juld Gerald Carter died October 21, 2026, at Macon State Prison; cause Homicide.
• Tony Horne died August 20, 2026, at Macon State Prison, age 48; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Randall Allen Cleveland died November 30, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 77; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Michael Tony Cooper died November 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 73; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Marquis Young died October 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 37; cause Homicide.
• Gary Simpson died October 8, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 63; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Clifton B Boston died August 26, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 67; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Calvin Earl Noble died August 26, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 25; cause Suicide.
• Cassiem Mahlon Johnson died August 25, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 55; cause Suicide.
• Pierre Cedric Scott died August 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 41; cause Homicide.
• Xavier Anthony Adams died July 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 40; cause Homicide.
• Niko Lamar Swann died June 27, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 36; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Lukas Lance Way died June 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 32; cause Homicide.
• Sanchez Jackson died June 19, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 48; cause Homicide.
• Terell Rasheen Everett died May 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 35; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Cornelius Lee Mason died May 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 64; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Douglas Wayne Medearis died May 19, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 50; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Marion Washington died May 16, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 61; cause Unknown/Pending.
• John Austin Mitchell died April 23, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 50; cause Unknown/Pending.
• D'Andrius Brown died March 23, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 30; cause Homicide.
• Lynn Alexander Durett died March 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 74; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Michael Alvin Reddings died March 8, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 64; cause Unknown/Pending.
• Marquel Smith died February 14, 2025, at Macon State Prison, age 29; cause Homicide.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — March 31, 2025 staffing and homicide investigation; January 21, 2025 list of those killed in Georgia's prisons; September 16, 2025 homicide reporting on Sanchez Jackson.
• U.S. Department of Justice report (October 2024) on Georgia prison conditions, as described by the AJC.
• Federal lawsuit over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (filed January 21, 2025); Southern Center for Human Rights lawsuit over conditions at Macon State Prison (filed January 24, 2025).
• CBS News (cbsnews.com) — extradition of Rodney Edward Smith on fraud charges, August 2025.
• GPS case submissions — reports relayed from inside Macon State Prison, September and October 2026.
• Georgia Department of Corrections death and investigation records; coroner statements as quoted by the AJC.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.