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Spann, James Clarence
Status: active
Profile written September 6, 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
James Clarence Spann’s GDC career began as a counselor at Autry State Prison in 2004, followed by chief counselor at Calhoun State Prison in 2009 and behavioral health counselor at Wilcox State Prison in 2015. He then held deputy warden posts at Wilcox from 2016 to 2019 and at Autry in 2020, served as warden at Burruss Correctional Training Center from 2021 to 2022, warden at Lee State Prison from 2023 to 2024, and warden at Ware State Prison beginning in January 2024. GPS records attribute 40 deaths to the facility leadership and deputy-warden tenures he held: 29 at Ware State Prison, 8 at Autry State Prison, 2 at Lee State Prison, and 1 at Burruss Correctional Training Center. No lawsuits naming Spann as a defendant appear in GPS records.What happened on their watch
Wilcox State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2016–2019
The GPS deaths-by-facility table does not assign any deaths to this posting. A separate GPS intel event marks an Atlanta Journal-Constitution account alleging that officials failed to recognize James Wheeler’s history of self-harm and placed him in solitary confinement, where he was found hanging in October 2017; Spann held the deputy warden role at Wilcox that year. The event record lists $750,000 in its amount field.
Autry State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2020
GPS attributes eight deaths to this year. Seven of the eight — Cordell James Shipman, 22; Richard Office, 80; Thomas Edward White, 75; James Mitchell Blankenship, 67; Willie J. Bell, 68; Dennis Lee Hammons, 62; and Darren Nicholas Wehrle, 32 — are classified as natural in GDC’s own coding obtained through the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project records request; that coding is not an autopsy finding. Mark Ramos, 59, is listed with an unknown/pending cause in GPS records.
Burruss Correctional Training Center — Warden, 2021–2022
GPS attributes one death: Robert Carey Seymour, 58, on March 9, 2022; his cause is listed as unknown/pending in GPS records.
Lee State Prison — Warden, 2023–2024
GPS attributes two deaths, both in 2024: Daniel Emmett Ivey, 26, and Christopher Aaron Godfrey, 40. Both carry unknown/pending causes in GPS records.
Ware State Prison — Warden, January 2024–present
GPS attributes 29 deaths here. Ware County Coroner and GBI Division of Forensic Sciences records document homicides by blunt force, sharp force, ligature strangulation, or combinations of those injuries, including David Renfro (Oct. 2024), Scott Lee Hullander (Dec. 2024), Christopher Allen Barrett (Dec. 2025), Christopher Henry (Feb. 2026), Anthony Terrell Grover, Justin Dean Pulley, and Kojack Junior Thomas (May 2026). Suicides recorded include hangings of Antonio Leon Moses and Dakota Lee Duffin, and exsanguination of Marty Shawn Wright. Accidental deaths include Barry Lynn Rutherford, from acute methamphetamine intoxication, and Lon Taylor Willbanks, from synthetic-cannabinoid toxicity. Natural deaths, often cardiac-related, also appear. In two deaths, Ted Daniel Karras (Dec. 2024) and Charles Johnny Rice (Apr. 2025), GBI certified the manner as undetermined — neck compression of uncertain cause and asphyxia, respectively — while GPS assesses both as homicides because the examiner did not exclude homicidal strangulation or smothering; official certification remains undetermined. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported ten inmates were killed at Ware between July 2020 and August 2024, a window overlapping Spann’s first eight months as warden. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported a mother’s allegation that no counts or welfare checks were conducted at Ware, allowing her son’s body to go undiscovered for days. More broadly, DOJ findings reported by WALB said GDC systematically underreported prison homicides and forwarded only small percentages of fights, assaults, and weapons incidents for investigation, a systemic context overlapping the tenure years documented here.
Sources
- GPS personnel, mortality, and intel records.
- Ware County Coroner / GBI Division of Forensic Sciences records.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Georgia Public Broadcasting.
- WALB.
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset (GDC records obtained via open records request).
- DOJ investigation findings as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WALB, and Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| WARDEN 3 | WARE STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Warden | WARE STATE PRISON | 2024-10-16 → present |
| WARDEN 1 | WARE STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → 2024-10-15 |
| Warden | LEE STATE PRISON | 2023-09-01 → 2024-12-31 |
| WARDEN 1 | LEE STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-08-31 |
| WARDEN 1 | BURRUSS C.T.C | 2021-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | AUTRY STATE PRISON | 2020-01-01 → 2020-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2019-12-31 |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (SP) | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Chief Counselor | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2009-01-01 → 2009-12-31 |
| Counselor | AUTRY STATE PRISON | 2004-01-01 → 2004-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:25-cv-00111 | GAMD | 2025-03-26 | pending |
Deaths attributed during tenure
40 people died at facilities under Spann, James Clarence's leadership.
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