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American Bar Association: Georgia
Death Penalty Assessment
The American Bar Association's Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Team released this report highlighting the failures and successes of Georgia's death penalty system. One of the major problems they found was inadequate defense counsel. Although Georgia instituted a statewide capital defender system in 2005, it is unclear whether it will receive the appropriate level of funding needed to provide effective counsel to poor defendants. Additionally, there is concern that defendants already on death row may not have had adequate counsel at the time of their trials. The Assessment Team also noted that Georgia is the only state that does not provide lawyers to death row inmates for their post-conviction appeals. The team expressed concerns about Georgia's proportionality review system (the process by which similar cases are considered to see if a particular case merits the death penalty) as well as inadequate jury instructions on mitigating factors that could show a defendant does not deserve the death penalty. The report also presents racial disparities in capital sentencing, and condemns Georgia for applying the death penalty in felony-murder cases, cases that do not usually include a component of malice or premeditation. Additionally, the report states that Georgia's system places an inappropriate burden of proof on defendants who try to prove mental retardation, as Georgia is the only state that requires that defendants prove mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt. In terms of DNA collection, preservation, and testing, Georgia requires evidence to be preserved until a defendant is executed, but procedural ambiguities and restrictions make it difficult for defendants to obtain hearings or relief based on post-conviction DNA results. The report also states that eyewitness identification and false confessions are the two leading causes of wrongful conviction and laments that Georgia does not require all law enforcement agencies to adopt identification and interrogation procedures. The assessment team expresses concern about the state's crime laboratories, saying the standards and procedures need to be available to the public and the laboratories need adequate funding to address a backlog that was expected to exceed 36,000 cases by the end of fiscal year 2005. They also express concern about the potential for prosecutorial misconduct, and recommend that Georgia require district attorney's offices to establish policies on the exercise and evaluation of prosecutorial discretion. The team concludes "our research establishes that at this point in time, the State cannot ensure that fairness and accuracy are the hallmark of every case in which the death penalty is sought" and recommends a moratorium until these problems are adequately addressed. You can read the complete report on the American Bar Association's website.
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