Georgia exempted death row from its four-year habeas deadline — the one group it gives lawyers and unlimited time. Everyone else gets four years, no attorney, and rationed law-library access to teach themselves a profession that takes seven years to learn. The deadline doesn’t reject wrongful-conviction claims. It buries them unheard.
For two decades Georgia’s crime lab was run by a man who was not a physician or forensic pathologist, and built convictions on hair and fiber methods now known to be unreliable. At least 17 states reviewed such cases. Georgia didn’t — and the guilty went free while the innocent went to prison.
More than 80% of American voters support prison reform. A landmark Brennan Center study proves reform works — with 73% violence reductions, recidivism drops of one-third, and renovations under budget. Georgia is one of two states explicitly called out for refusing to try. This companion report to the “No Way Out” series holds the evidence against what Georgia’s families and incarcerated people are experiencing.