Georgia’s Chief Justice told a new House study committee that the state’s post-conviction system is broken — and that the courts broke much of it. Inside the first meeting of the Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation, and what to watch as it shapes the 2027 session.
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.
Maria Montalvo, Sheila Denton, Dasha Fincher: across arson, bite marks, and field drug tests, junk forensic science continues to convict the innocent. Georgia is the national outlier — and almost nothing in state law lets the courts correct the record.
Georgia is the only state where unconfirmed field drug tests can convict. Colorado just banned arrests based on these $2 tests — unanimously. Here’s how advocates can bring that reform to Georgia.
Georgia is the only state where unconfirmed $2 field drug tests can convict someone at trial. Colorado just unanimously banned arrests based on these tests. An estimated 961 Georgians are falsely arrested annually.
Georgia is the only state where a $2 field drug test can sustain a conviction at trial. Colorado just showed — unanimously — how to fix it. A zero-cost reform could protect 961 Georgians falsely arrested each year.
Georgia is the only state where a $2 roadside drug test can convict someone. These tests get it wrong up to 38% of the time. Colorado just banned test-only arrests. Georgia must follow.
Sandeep Bharadia’s exoneration after 20 years exposes Georgia’s deeper crisis: most wrongful convictions never reach trial. Dangerous jails, unaffordable bail, and prosecutorial overcharging turn pretrial detention into a machine that coerces guilty pleas—even from the innocent.