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

Georgia imprisons an estimated 2,500 innocent people — the product of a wrongful conviction rate between 4–6%, a post-conviction legal system riddled with procedural barriers, and a near-total absence of institutional mechanisms to review and correct unjust verdicts. With the fourth-highest state prison population in the nation, 51 documented exonerations representing over 610 years of wrongful imprisonment, and only 3 of 159 counties possessing any conviction integrity review mechanism, Georgia's failure to address wrongful conviction is not incidental — it is structural. This page synthesizes findings across 17 research collections documenting the scope of wrongful conviction in Georgia, the systemic barriers to post-conviction relief, and the reform models that exist but remain unimplemented.