Wiley, Flemister E

Tenure Summary

Flemister E. Wiley's documented career with the Georgia Department of Corrections begins in 2015 in a staff-tier training role — listed as PUBLIC SAFETY TRN (AL) for that year, then as Public Safety Trainer 3 from 2016 through 2023, with no facility attached to those positions in the records. On November 22, 2023, Wiley appears as Deputy Warden at the Special Management Unit (SMU), the state's supermax facility, and he holds that Deputy Warden post through the 2025 salary year.

Four deaths are attributed to his leadership tenure, all of them at the Special Management Unit. No lawsuit naming Wiley as a defendant was filed while he held the Deputy Warden role; the single case in the records listing him as a defendant, Gumm v. Jacobs, was filed in February 2015 and terminated in May 2019, when he held a trainer position. His SMU tenure nonetheless overlapped with a federal contempt order against the GDC over the 2019 SMU settlement, a Department of Justice report describing conditions in Georgia prisons as inhumane, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigations into the department's death reporting, records practices and DOJ cooperation.

What happened on their watch

Special Management Unit — Deputy Warden (November 22, 2023 through 2025)

Four deaths are attributed to Wiley's tenure as Deputy Warden at the Special Management Unit, per GPS's death registry:

• Ricardo Castavio Daughtry died June 10, 2024, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 41.
• Emilio Christopher Canales died October 22, 2024, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 40.
• Lashon Boddie died September 2, 2025, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 30.
• Michael Ogletree died October 31, 2025, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 33.

The registry does not list a cause for any of the four; GPS records show the causes as unknown/pending.

The single most documented death is Daughtry's. Per court and AJC records, Daughtry was the lead plaintiff in litigation over conditions at the SMU. The AJC reported in January 2025 that GDC failed to check on Ricardo Daughtry for nearly seven hours before his body was discovered, despite a policy requiring checks every 30 minutes, and that prison records showed the deceased Daughtry attending "table time," recreation and the book cart after he had already been pronounced dead. A separate AJC editorial the same month described an inmate who died after no one checked on him for almost seven hours despite policies requiring checks every 15 to 30 minutes.

Broader findings documented during Wiley's SMU tenure include: a 100-page contempt order issued in April 2024 by U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell, holding the GDC in contempt for false statements and misrepresentations about compliance with the 2019 SMU settlement, finding officials stalled compliance until the injunction neared expiration, and citing falsified and backdated prisoner review forms; AJC reporting that the GDC blocked out entire pages of incident reports on prisoner deaths, that it stopped including preliminary cause of death in monthly mortality reports in March 2024, that it obstructed DOJ investigators by restricting visits and withholding records, and that Commissioner Tyrone Oliver called accurate reporting on undisclosed homicides "propaganda"; consultants retained by the GDC who examined 388 investigative files in May 2022 and found none met Prisoner Rape Elimination Act standards; and a DOJ report finding conditions in Georgia prisons inhumane. Also during this period, AJC reporting and court records document: the seizure from Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. of a contraband cellphone used inside the SMU to steal $11 million from the Charles Schwab account of Sidney Kimmel, discovered by warden Jose Morales, with the phone showing $31 million in a bank account; and Cofield's sentencing to 135 months with over $12.5 million in restitution. The record also reflects the wrongful-conviction case of Jason Palmer, and legislative action — a Senate study committee in March 2024, a House special subcommittee created in July 2024, and Governor Brian Kemp's proposal of $600 million in additional prison funding in January 2025.

Litigation

• Gumm v. Jacobs, No. 5:15-cv-00041 (GAMD) — filed February 12, 2015; terminated May 7, 2019; no outcome amount recorded. Wiley is listed as a defendant during the period he held the PUBLIC SAFETY TRN (AL) position. Per AJC-reported events, the case concerned five years of solitary confinement at the Special Management Unit and produced a settlement requiring major system changes, with an independent monitor overseeing GDC compliance.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — January 21, 2025 investigations report on GDC representations to federal investigators, lawmakers and a federal judge; January 10, 2025 editorial on prison reform; January 7, 2024 crime report on Arthur Lee Cofield Jr.
• U.S. Department of Justice — report on conditions in Georgia prisons, as described in AJC reporting
• U.S. District Court, GAMD — docket for Gumm v. Jacobs (5:15-cv-00041)
• Contempt order of U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell (April 2024) regarding the 2019 Special Management Unit settlement
• GPS death registry — death records for Ricardo Castavio Daughtry, Emilio Christopher Canales, Lashon Boddie and Michael Ogletree

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.