Junk Forensic Science and Wrongful Convictions: A National Survey Anchored by the Maria Montalvo Case

Georgia incarcerates an estimated 2,500 innocent people — a consequence of structural failures spanning wrongful conviction, post-conviction obstruction, inadequate defense, and prosecutorial impunity. Despite documented exonerations, bipartisan reform efforts, and a newly enacted compensation law, Georgia remains an outlier among states in nearly every metric of conviction integrity: it lacks a statewide Conviction Integrity Unit, maintains an unconstitutional four-year habeas corpus limitation, and provides virtually no meaningful accountability for prosecutors who secure wrongful convictions. The data reveal not isolated errors but a system designed — through procedural barriers, resource starvation, and institutional resistance — to make wrongful convictions permanent.